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Paternoster Row London. 



AN ENGLISHMAN'S 



TRAVELS IN AMERIl 



HIS OBSERVATIONS OF 



fife attir paws in % Jra attfo Slate Slates. 



BY J. BENWELL, 



LONDON: 
BINNS AND GOODWIN, 44, FLEET STREET, 

AND 19, CHEAP STREET, BATH. 
EDINBURGH : OLIVER AND BOYD. DUBLIN : J. M'GLASHAN, 






BATH . PRINTED BY BINNS AND GOODWIN. 



/ /*? 






PBEFACE. 



Personal narrative and adventure has, of late 
years, become so interesting a subject in the 
mind of the British public, that the author feels 
he is not called upon to apologize for the pro- 
duction of the following pages. 

It was his almost unremitting practice, during 
the four years he resided on the North American 
continent, to keep a record of what he considered 
of interest around him ; not with a view to pub- 
lishing the matter thus collected, for this was 
far from his thoughts at the time, but through 
a long contracted habit of dotting down trans- 



IV PREFACE. 

piring events, for the future amusement, com- 
bined, perhaps, with instruction, of himself and 
friends. It therefore became necessary, to fit it 
for publication, to collate the accumulated memo- 
randa, and select such portions only as might 
be supposed to prove interesting to the general 
reader. In doing this he has been careful to 
preserve the phraseology as much as possible, 
with a view to give, as far as he could, some- 
thing like a literal transcript of the sentiments 
that gave rise to the original minutes, and 
avoid undue addition or interpolation. 

It was the wish and intention of the writer, 
before leaving England, to extend his travels by 
visiting some of the islands in the Caribbean Sea, 
a course which he regrets not having been able 
to follow, from unforeseen circumstances, which 
are partially related in the following pages. He 
laments this the more, as it would have added 
considerably to the interest of the work, and 
enabled him to enlarge upon that fertile subject, 
the relative position at the time of the negro 



/ 



PREFACE. V 

race in those islands, and the demoralized con- 
dition of their fellow-countrymen, under the 
iniquitous system of slavery, as authorized by 
statute law, in the southern states of America. 
As it was, he was enabled to travel through 
the most populous parts of the states of New 
York and Ohio, proceeding, via Cincinnati, to 
the Missouri country ; after a brief stay at St. 
Louis, taking the direct southern route down 
the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, to New 
Orleans in Louisiana, passing Natchez on the 
way. The whole tour comprising upwards of 
three thousand miles. 

From New Orleans he crossed an arm of the 
Gulf of Mexico to the Floridas, and after re- 
maining in that territory for a considerable time, 
and taking part under a sense of duty in a 
campaign (more to scatter than annihilate), 
against the Seminole and Cherokee tribes of 
Indians, who, in conjunction with numberless 
fugitive slaves, from the districts a hundred 
miles round, were devastating the settlements, 



VI PREFACE. 

and indiscriminately butchering the inhabitants, 
he returned to Tallahassee, taking stage at that 
town to Macon in the state of Georgia, and from 
thence by the Greensborough Railway to Charles- 
ton in South Carolina, sailing after rather a 
prolonged stay, from that port to England. 

Some of the incidents related in the following 
pages will be found to bear upon, and tend 
forcibly to corroborate, the miseries so patiently 
endured by the African race, in a vaunted land 
of freedom and enlightenment, whose inhabi- 
tants assert, with ridiculous teuacity, that their 
government and laws are based upon the princi- 
ple, " That all men in the sight of God are equal/' 
and the wrongs of whose victims have of late 
been so touchingly and truthfully illustrated by 
that eminent philanthropist, Mrs. Stowe, to the 
eternal shame of the upholders of the system, 
and the fearful incubus of guilt and culpability 
that will render for ever infamous, if the policy 
is persisted in, the nationality of America. 

Well may the benevolent Doctor Percival in 



PREFACE. Vll 



his day have said, when writing on the iniquitous 
system of slave holding and traffic, that " Life 
and liberty with the powers of enjoyment de- 
pendent on them are the common and inalien- 
able gifts of bounteous heaven. To seize them 
by force is rapine ; to exchange for them the 
wares of Manchester or Birminghan is improbity, 
for it is to barter without reciprocal gain, to 
give the stones of the brook for the gold of 
Ophir." 



THE ENGLISHMAN IN AMERICA. 



CHAPTER I. 



" Adieu, adieu ! my native shore 

Fades o'er the waters blue ; 
The night- winds sigh, the breakers roar, 

And shrieks the wild sea-mew. 
Yon sun that sets upon the sea 

We follow in his flight ; 
Farewell awhile to him and thee, 

My native Land — Good night ! " — Byron. 

Late in the fall of the year 18 — , I embarked on 
board the ship Cosmo, bound from the port of 
Bristol to that of New York. The season was 
unpropitious, the lingering effects of the autumnal 
equinox rendering it more than probable that the 
passage would be tempestuous. The result soon 
proved the correctness of this surmise, for soon 
after the vessel departed from Kingroad, and 
before she got clear of the English coast, we ex- 

B 



2 IN PERIL FROM ICEBERGS. 

perienced boisterous weather, which was followed 
by a succession of gales, that rendered our situa- 
tion perilous. But a partial destruction of the rig- 
ging, the loss of some sheep on the deck of the 
vessel, and a slight indication of leakage, which 
was soon remedied by the carpenter of the ship 
and his assistants, were happily the only detri- 
mental consequences arising from the weather. 

Our progress on the whole was satisfactory, 
although, when we arrived between 48 and 
52 degrees north latitude, we narrowly es- 
caped coming in contact with an enormous ice- 
berg, two of which were descried at daybreak by 
the " look-out/' floundering majestically a little' 
on the ship's larboard quarter, not far distant ; 
the alarm being raised by an uproar on deck that 
filled my mind with dire apprehension, the lee 
bulwarks of the vessel were in five minutes 
thronged with half-naked passengers, who had 
been roused unexpectedly from their slumbers, 
staring in terror at the frigid masses which we 
momentarily feared would overwhelm the ship. 
The helm being put up, we were soon out of the 
threatened danger of a collision, which would have 
consigned us to a grave in the wide wide waters, 
without the remotest chance of escape. This 
consideration was, to all on board, a matter of 
deep thankfulness to the mighty Author of such 
stupendous wonders, who had so miraculously pre- 



DANGER OF COLLISION. 6 

served our lives. Had the adventure occurred in 
the night, our destruction must have been in- 
evitable, as the ship was sailing under heavy 
canvas, within a single point of the wake of one 
of the icebergs, which was drifting before a stiff 
breeze. 

Although this encounter proved harmless, 
we shortly after had another to dread of a fearful 
nature. The number of fishing-boats off the 
coast of Newfoundland, makes the navigation 
perilous at almost any time to vessels approaching 
too near the banks, and after night-fall, the 
vessel going at the rate of ten knots an hour with 
a smacking breeze, we passed many of these at 
anchor, or rather, I suppose, riding on the waves ; 
they displayed lights, or serious consequences 
might have ensued. Some of the skiffs w^ere so 
near to us, that as I leaned over the ship's 
quarter-rail, dreading, and every moment expect- 
ing, that we should run one down, I could 
distinctly hear the crews hailing us to shorten 
sail and keep off. By adopting this course our 
vessel cleared the danger, and after slightly touch- 
ing the banks, which caused the vessel to heel, 
and created a momentary panic on board amongst 
the passengers, she was steered more out to sea, 
and by the following morning nothing was to be 
seen but a boundless waste of waters, extending 
as far as the eye could reach. 



4 A FRACAS ON BOARD. 

After these temporary alarms, with the ex- 
ception of baffling winds, which impeded the 
progress of the ship, and lengthened the duration 
of our confinement ten days or a fortnight, our 
voyage was prosperous, little occurring to break 
the monotony of confinement on ship-board that 
is experienced in sea-passages in general; the only 
excitement being a fracas between the captain 
and cook, owing to complaints made by the 
middle-cabin and steerage passengers, which 
nearly ended fatally to the former, who would 
have been stabbed to a certainty, but for a 
bystander wresting the knife from the hand of the 
enraged subordinate, who had been supplied 
too liberally with spirits by the passengers ; a 
predominating evil on board all emigrant ships, 
from the drawback of duty allowed on spirits 
shipped as stores, and which are retailed on the 
voyage to the passengers. The culprit was confined 
below during the remainder of the voyage, and 
when we arrived at New York presented a 
pitiable sight, having been rigidly debarred by the 
captain's orders of many of the commonest neces- 
saries, I believe, the whole time. Here he was 
released and discharged from the ship, glad enough 
to escape further punishment, "prosecution" 
having been, since the occurrence, held in ter- 
ror em over him. 

It was late in the afternoon of an intensely 



SANDY HOOK. 5 

cold day, "which caused the spray to congeal as it 
dashed against the bulwarks and cordage of the 
vessel, that we descried with great pleasure loom- 
ing indistinctly in the distance, the shores of 
Sandy Hook, a desolate-looking island, near the 
coast of New Jersey, about seven miles south of 
Long Island Sound. This the captain informed 
me was formerly a peninsula, but the isthmus 
was broken through by the sea in 1767, the year 
after the declaration of American independence, 
an occurrence which was at the time deemed 
ominous of the severance of the colonies from 
the mother country, and which proved in reality 
to be the precursor of that event. 

The sight of terra fir ma y though at a distance 
and but gloomy in aspect, put all on board in 
buoyant spirits ; but these were but transitory, 
our enthusiasm being soon damped by a dense fog, 
resembling those the Londoners are so accustomed 
to see in the winter, and which in an incredibly 
short space of time, in this instance, obscured 
everything around. Our proximity to the shore 
rendered the circumstance hazardous to us, and it 
appeared necessary that the vessel's head should 
be again put seaward ; but this the captain was 
evidently anxious to avoid, as it involved the risk 
of protracting the voyage. A general rummage for 
ammunition was therefore ordered, and a supply 
of this necessary having been obtained, the ship's 



6 THE PILOT. 

carronade was after considerable delay put in 
order, and minute guns were fired After dis- 
charging some thirty rounds or more, we were 
relieved from the state of anxiety we were in 
by a pilot hailing the ship, and in a minute 
after he was on deck issuing orders with great 
pertinacity. 

It is impossible for any one unaccustomed to 
sea voyages to form a just conception of the relief 
afforded by the presence of that important func- 
tionary, a pilot. Perhaps a captain's greatest 
anxiety is, when his vessel, having braved a 
thousand perils on the deep, is about to enter on 
the termination of its voyage. On the broad 
expanse of ocean, or, in nautical phrase, with 
plenty of sea-room, if his bark is in good con- 
dition, he fears little or nothing, but when his 
vessel approaches its goal, visions of disaster arise 
before him, and he becomes anxious, thoughtful, 
and taciturn. 

The pilot informed us that he had kept our 
vessel in chase for a considerable time, and had 
burnt a number of newspapers on the deck of his 
cutter to attract attention, but ail his efforts 
proved unavailing, when just as he was about to 
abandon the pursuit, he descried and hailed the 
ship. This being the first specimen of an 
American whom many of the passengers had seen 
in his native climate, their curiosity was aroused, 



A LION. 7 



and they crowded round him, regarding every 
word and movement with the greatest attention 
and interest. The pilot was evidently displeased 
with being made " a lion " of, and gave vent to 
his feelings rather freely, while there was a curl 
of hauteur on his lip, that indicated a species of 
contempt for the company he was in. This dis- 
position did not convey a very favourable idea 
of his countrymen, and was, to say the least of it, 
an ill-judged display before strangers ; coming, 
however, as it did, from an illiterate man, be- 
longing, as I knew from previous inquiry, to 
rather an exceptional class of individuals in 
America, I did not suffer my mind to be biassed, 
although I could see that many of the passengers 
were not disposed to view the matter in the same 
light. He was a brusque and uncouth man, of 
swaggering gait, about forty years of age, above 
the middle stature, and soon let the captain and 
crew know, by his authoritative manner and 
volubility of tongue, that he was chief in com- 
mand on the occasion. No one seemed, however, 
to dispute this, for the passengers looked on him 
as a sort of divinity sent to their rescue ; the 
ship's hands were implicitly obedient, and the 
captain very soon after his arrival retired into 
the cabin, glad to be relieved from a heavy 
responsibility. 

The following morning, the haze having cleared 



8 QUARANTINE. 

off, we could again see the Jersey shore. The sea 
in every direction was now darkened with 
millions of black gulls, wild ducks, and other 
aquatic birds ; we shot many of these from the 
ship's deck, but were, much to our mortification, 
obliged to see them drift away, the pilot, seconded 
by our austere captain, strenuously objecting to a 
boat being lowered ; this was very discouraging, as 
such a change in our diet would, after a rather 
prolonged voyage, have been acceptable. 

A favourable breeze soon carried our good 
ship to the quarantine ground, where we dropped 
anchor, in no little anxiety lest we should be 
detained. The medical officers from the college, 
or rather sanatory establishment, on shore, 
almost immediately came on board. All hands 
were mustered on deck, and ranged like soldiers 
on parade ground by these important function- 
aries, who, I may remark by the way, appeared 
like our pilot to be possessed of considerable 
notions of power and authority. After taking 
a rather cursory inspection they left the vessel, 
and we, to our great joy (a case of small 
pox having occurred during the passage), were 
allowed to proceed towards New York, which 
we did under easy sail, the breeze rendering a 
steam-tug unnecessary. 

The scenery as we passed up the river was cal- 
culated to give a good impression of the country, 



NEW YORK HARBOUR. ^ 

the zest being, however, without doubt, greatly 
heightened by the monotonous dreariness of a 
tempestuous voyage. The highlands and valleys, 
as we sailed up, had a verdant woody appear- 
ance, and were interspersed with rural and 
chateau scenery ; herds of cattle remarkable for 
length of horn, and snow-white sheep, were 
grazing placidly in the lowlands. • The country, 
as far as I could judge, seemed in a high state of 
culture, and the farms, to use an expression of 
the celebrated Washington Irving's, when de- 
scribing, I think, a farm-yard view in England, 
appeared " redolent of pigs, poultry, and sundry 
other good things appertaining to rural life." 

On arriving at the approach to the entrance or 
mouth of the river Hudson, which is formed by 
an arm of the estuary, we turned the promon- 
tory, leaving Jersey on the left, the battery as 
Ave entered the harbour being in the foreground. 
The guns bristled from this fortress with 
menacing aspect, and the sentinels, in light blue 
uniforms and Kosciusko caps, silently paced the 
ramparts with automatic regularity. This for- 
tification, though formidable in appearance, and 
certainly in a commanding position, I was sub- 
sequently informed is little more than a mimic 
fort ; this arises from the w^ant of attention paid 
to defences of the kind in America, the little 
existing chance of invasion, perhaps, causing the 



10 FIRST IMPRESSION OF NEW YORK. 

indifference to the subject. If, however, the 
spirit of aggressive conquest shown by the federal 
government, of late years, of which the invasion 
of Mexico is a fair specimen, should continue to 
develop itself, it is not difficult to foresee that it 
will be necessary policy to pay greater attention 
to the subject, and to keep in a more effective 
state the seaboard defences of the country, as 
well as their army, which is at present miserably 
deficient. This has heretofore been so far neg- 
lected, as regards the marine, that not long before 
I arrived the commander of a French ship of Avar 
was much chagrined, on firing a salute as he 
passed the battery at New York, to find that his 
courtesy was not returned in the customary way. 
He complained of the omission as either a mark 
of disrespect to himself, or an insult to his 
nation, when it came out in explanation that 
the garrison was in such a defective state that 
there were not the appliances at hand to observe 
this national etiquette. 

The city of New York is built almost close to 
the water's edge, with a broad levee or wharf 
running round a great portion of it. Its general 
appearance gives to a stranger an impression 
of its extent and importance. It has been 
aptly and accurately described as a dense 
pack of buildings, comprising every imaginable 
variety, and of all known orders of modernized 



GOING ASHORE. 1] 

architecture. The tide flows close up to the 
wharves which run outside of the city, and 
differs so little in height at ebb or flow, that 
vessels of the largest class ride, I believe, at all 
times as safely as in the West India docks in 
London, or the imperial docks of Liverpool. 
Here was assembled an incalculable number of 
vessels of all sizes and all nations, forming a 
beautiful and picturesque view of commercial 
enterprise and grandeur, perhaps outvying every 
other port in the world, not excepting Liverpool 
itself. 

As our vessel could not at once be accom- 
modated with a berth, owing to the crowded state 
of the harbour, she was moored in the middle of 
the stream, and being anxious to go on shore, I 
availed myself of the captain's offer to take me 
to the landing-place in his gig. We went on 
shore in an alcove, at the foot of Wall-street, and 
I experienced the most delightful sensation on 
once more setting foot on terra firma, after our 
dreary voyage. The day, notwithstanding it was 
now October, was intensely hot (although a 
severe frost for two or three days before gave 
indications of approaching winter, and the streets 
being unmacadamized, had that arid look we 
read of in accounts of the plains of Arabia, the 
dust being quite deep, and exceeding in quantity 
anything of the kind I had ever seen in Euro- 



12 AN AMERICAN AUCTIONEER. 

pean cities : clouds of it impregnated the air, 
and rendered respiration and sight difficult. 

Hundreds of rudely-constructed drays were 
passing to and fro, heavily laden with merchan- 
dize, many of them drawn by mules, and the 
remainder by very light horses of Arabian build ; 
the heavy English dray horse was nowhere to be 
seen, the breed as I afterwards learned not being 
cultivated, from a dislike to its ponderousness. 

The lower part of Wall-street presented a busy 
mart-like appearance, every description of goods 
being piled heterogeneously before the warehouse- 
doors of their respective owners in the open 
thoroughfare, which is at this part very wide. 
Auctioneers were here busily engaged in the dis- 
posal of their merchandise, which comprised every 
variety of produce and manufacture, home and 
foreign, from a yard of linsey-woolsey, "hum 
spun " as they termed it, to a bale of Manchester 
long cloth, or their own Sea-Island cotton. The 
auctioneer in America is a curious specimen of 
the biped creation. He is usually a swaggering, 
consequential sort of fellow, and drives away at 
his calling with wondrous impudence and perti- 
nacity, dispensing, all the while he is selling, the 
most fulsome flattery or the grossest abuse on 
those who stand around. One of these loquacious 
animals was holding forth to a crowd, just below 
the Courier and Inquirer newspaper office, where 



SENATOR HUFF. 13 

the street widens, as a preliminary introduction 
to the sale of a quantity of linen goods that had 
been damaged at a recent fire in the neighbour- 
hood. I could not help admiring the man's tact. 
Fixing his eyes on an individual in a white dress, 
with an enormous Leghorn hat on his head ; who 
was apparently eagerly listening, while smoking 
a cigar, to the harangue, he suddenly exclaimed, 
" There now is Senator Huff, from the State of 
Missouri, he heerd of this vendue a thousand 
mile up river, and wall knows I'm about to oifer 
somethin woth having ; look at him, he could 
buy up the fust five hunderd folks hed cum across 
anywhar in this city, and what's more, he's a true 
patriot, made o' the right kinder stuff, I guess." 
He followed up the eulogium at great length, 
and after liberally dispensing " soft soap " on the 
listeners, declared the auction had commenced. 
I stood by for some minutes, gazing around and 
watching the operations, and was not long in dis- 
covering that Senator Huff kept running up the 
articles by pretended bids, and was evidently 
in league with him, in fact a confederate. This 
auctioneer was the very emblem of buffoonery and 
blackguardism ; the rapidity with which he re- 
peated the sums, supposed by the bystanders to 
be bid, the curt yet extravagant praise bestowed 
on his wares, and his insulting and unsparing 
remarks if a comment were made on the goods he 



14 MOCK AUCTIONS. 

offered, or if the company did not respond in 
bidding, stamped him as one of the baser sort of 
vulgarians. 

Sales of this description were going on in 
every direction, and the street rang with the 
stentorian voices of the sellers. Many of these 
were mock auctions, as an observer of any intelli- 
gence would detect, and as I ascertained beyond 
doubt almost directly after leaving this man's 
stand ; for, stepping into an open store close at 
hand, of which there are ranges on either side of 
the street, a sale of jewellery and watches was 
going on. A case of jewellery, containing, among 
other things, a gold watch and chain, apparently 
of exquisite workmanship, was put up just as I 
entered, and was started at six cents per article. 
Bid after bid succeeded, until, at last, the lot was 
knocked down to a southern gentleman present 
at fifty cents per item. On making the purchase, 
he naturally wished to know how many articles 
the box contained. This information, on the plea 
that it would delay the sale, was withheld. The 
auctioneer, however, insisted on the payment of 
a deposit of fifty dollars, in compliance with the 
published conditions of the sale, which sum, after 
a demur on the part of the purchaser, was paid. 
I could see, however, that he was now sen- 
sible he had been duped, and I afterwards 
learnt that some forty or fifty articles, of almost 



EMIGRANTS BEWARE ! 15 

every fancy description, many of them worthless, 
such as pins, knives, tweezers, and a variety 
of other knick-knacks, were artfully concealed 
from view, by means of a false bottom to the 
case ; this being lifted up revealed the truth. 
The man was greatly enraged on finding he had 
been cheated, but was treated with the most 
audacious coolness, and after some altercation 
left the store, as he said, to seek redress else- 
where, but I have no doubt he went off with 
the intention of losing his deposit. 

This occurrence put me on my guard, and 
made me very wary of buying articles at such 
auctions during my stay in New York, although 
the apparent beauty and cheapness of many of the 
articles I saw offered, especially of French manu- 
facture, were sufficient to decoy the most wary, 
and I did not wonder at people being victimized 
at such places. Emigrants are the chief sufferers, 
I was told, by such transactions, from their want 
of caution, and ignorance of the arts of the 
accomplished deceivers who conduct them. 

Proceeding up Wall-street in the direction of 
Broadway, I reached that portion of it frequented 
by stock and real-estate brokers. Here crowds 
of gentlemanly-looking men, dressed mostly in 
black, and of busy mien, crowded the thorough- 
fare with scrip in hand. Each appeared intensely 
absorbed in business, and as I gazed on the 



16 NEGROES IN NEW YORK. 

assemblage, I could discover unmistakable symp- 
toms of great excitement and mental anxiety, the 
proportion of rueful countenances being much 
greater than is usually seen in similar places of 
resort in England ; a sudden depression in the 
market at the time might, however, account 
for much of this, although it is well known that 
brokers and speculators on the American conti- 
nent engage in the pursuit with the avidity of 
professed gamblers 

Hundreds of Negroes were hurrying to and fro 
through the streets , these were chiefly labourers, 
decently dressed, and employed either as draymen 
or porters. They looked happier than labourers 
in England ; and, being bathed in a profuse per- 
spiration from the heat of the weather, their faces 
shone almost like black satin or patent leather. 

After a few days' rest at my boarding-house, to 
which I was recommended by a touter, and which 
was in Canal-street, and was kept by a "cute" 
Down-easter, or native of the New England 
States, with whom I engaged for bed and board for 
eight dollars per week, I sallied forth to make 
my intended observations, preparatory to leaving 
for the west Everything wore a novel aspect. 
The number of foreigners seen in the thorough- 
fares, the tawdry flimsily-built carriages, which 
strangely contrast with the more substantial ones 
seen in England, and the dresses of the people, all 



STRANGE COSTUMES. 17 

seemed strange to me. The habiliments of one or 
two in particular rivetted my attention. The first 
was a Kentuckian, who was dressed in a suit of 
grey home-spun cloth, and wore on his head a 
fantastical cap, formed of a racoon-skin, beauti- 
fully striped, the ears projecting just above his 
forehead on each side, while the forefeet of the 
animal, decorated with red cloth, formed the ear- 
laps, and the tail depended over his back like a 
quieu, producing a ludicrous effect. His appear- 
ance as he passed along attracted little notice, 
such vagaries being common in America. My 
attention was also arrested by a person who was 
arrayed in a hunting suit of buck-skin, curiously 
wrought with strips of dyed porcupine-quill, and 
who wore an otter-skin cap and Indian moccasins. 
There, is, however, little novelty in this costume, 
which I frequently saw afterwards. Caps of the 
description I have mentioned are commonly worn 
in the interior. I subsequently donned one 
myself, and found it an admirable adjunct to 
easy travelling. 

During my stay at New York, I found the 
heat almost overpowering, the Indian summer 
(as the period between autumn and winter is 
there termed) having set in. An umbrella was 
quite a necessary appendage at times, to avoid its 
effects, which are often fatal to Europeans at the 
time of the summer solstice. 
c 



1 8 BROADWAY. 

In perambulating the city of New York, its 
appearance is prepossessing to a visitor ; the 
streets are well laid out, and are wide and regular, 
the houses being for the most part of the better 
class. The white or red paint (the latter pre- 
dominates), and the green and white jalousie, 
Venetian, and siesta blinds, giving a picturesque- 
ness to the scene. Handsome mats lie outside 
the doors of many of the better description of 
houses. 

Broadway is the principal place of attraction 
in New York, but it has so often been described 
by visitors, that it is a work of supererogation to 
comment much upon it here ; as, however, every 
tourist can see and describe differently the same 
objects, I must not pass it in silence, especially as 
it ranks in the view of the New Yorkers, 
something as Bond-street and Regent-street do in 
the metropolis of England. It is, however, far 
inferior to these ; it is not one, but a continuous 
line of streets, and, including Canal-street, ex- 
tends about three miles in length. The Haarlem 
Railway comes down a considerable portion of 
the upper part, the rails being laid in the centre 
of the street. The lower end of Broadway 
merges into the Battery Park, which is situated 
at the water's edge. In Broadway are to be seen 
magnificent hotels, theatres, magazines-de-mode, 
and all the etceteras of a fashionable mart, not 



ASTOR'S HOTEL AND DANIEL WEBSTER. 19 

omitting to mention crowds of elegantly dressed 
ladies and exquisitely attired gentlemen, including 
many of colour ; the latter appearing in the 
extreme of the fashion, with a redundancy of 
jewellery which, contrasting with their sable 
colour, produces to the eye of a stranger an 
unseemly effect. The shops and stores are fitted 
up in the Parisian style, appear well attended by 
customers, and are crowded with the choicest 
description of goods. 

Astor's Hotel, built by the so-called millionaire 
of that name, is a large but rather heavy -looking 
pile of building, and forms a conspicuous object 
in the park. Here many of the elite from the 
provinces sojourn on visiting the city. The 
accommodations are stated to be of the first order, 
and, from a cursory inspection, I should imagine 
this to be true, the only drawback being the enor- 
mous prices charged, exceeding, I was told, the 
ordinary run of first-class houses of that descrip- 
tion. Noticing from the opposite side of the street 
that the entrance was much crowded, curiosity 
led me to cross over and ascend the steps and 
listen to what was going on, supposing it some 
political demonstration ; in this, however, I was 
mistaken, for I found that the cause of the 
commotion was the recent arrival and presence 
of the celebrated statesman and lawyer, Daniel 
Webster, en route to Washington, whither he was 



20 DEMOCRATIC EXCLUSIVENESS. 

called by Congressional duties. I pressed forward 
to shake hands with this great expounder of 
American laws, as he is called by the citizens, 
who seemed, by the way, on the occasion I refer 
to, to regard him as a sort of divinity. I could 
not, however, succeed in getting near enough to 
accomplish my object, although I strove hard for 
it. It was quite amusing to see the anxiety shown 
by some of those present to effect the same pur- 
pose. The senator kept shaking hands with all 
around, repeating over and over again, " Glad to 
see you, citizens, glad to see you." Amongst 
others, a gentlemanly-dressed negro with a gold- 
headed cane pressed forward and held out his 
hand. There was, however, no chance for 
him in the throng, for he was rudely pushed 
back, and I heard several angry exclamations 
of disapprobation from the crowd, at the liberty 
he had taken, one individual in particular 
crying out, " Kick that nigger off, what has he to 
do here/' These exclamations caught the ear of 
the negro gentleman, and he shrunk back in an 
instant, as if electrified. Mr. Webster was a 
yeoman-like looking person, of rather a muscular 
build, and at one time of life was, no doubt, as I 
have heard, possessed of great physical powers ; 
he had a heavy and rather downcast turn of 
features, which were not improved by a pair of 
enormous black eyebrows ; there was, however, 



THE TOWN-HALL. 2 J 

an expression in his physiognomy that indicated 
deep thought, and a degree of intelligence above 
the mediocrity. In addition to this, there was 
also a pleasing urbanity in his manner that 
was certainly contrary to what might have been 
expected from his personal appearance and known 
burly character in business. He gradually re- 
treated up the steps towards the interior of the 
hotel, the excessive attentions paid by the crowd 
appearing troublesome to him. He was closely 
followed, however, by his admirers, whose bois- 
terous behaviour savoured much more of enthu- 
siasm than deference or politeness. I had heard 
that the Americans profess never to do things by 
halves, and so set this instance down as a proof 
of their propensity to " go the whole hog/' as they 
are wont to term their extremes and eccentri- 
cities. 

The Town-hall, situate at the base of the Park, 
which is a triangular piece of land, well laid out 
and neatly kept, is a light edifice of some taste 
and architectural merit, its chief attraction being 
the white marble of which it is constructed, and 
which is brought from the quarries at Sing-Sing, 
some miles up the river Hudson. The effect, how- 
ever, is not good ; its exposure to the elements 
having given it a blurred or chalky appearance. 
It is surmounted by a small but elevated cupola, 
constructed of wood, which some time ago, I was 



22 PRIVATE EXECUTIONS. 

informed by a citizen, caught fire at a pyrotechnic 
exhibition, and endangered the whole edifice, 
since which, displays of fire-works have been pro- 
hibited in the Park by the civic authorities. At 
the entrance there is a spacious vestibule, but 
this, as well as the interior, though elegant in its 
simplicity of style, is meagre of ornament. Pro- 
ceeding to the interior, I reached the criminal 
court, where a squalid-looking prisoner was 
undergoing trial for murder. The judges and 
officers of the court were almost entirely without 
insignia of office, and the counsel employed, I 
thought, evinced much tact in their proceedings, 
especially in the cross-examination of witnesses, 
although they manifested great acerbity of feeling 
towards each other, and their acrimonious re- 
marks would not, I imagine, have been allowed 
to pass without remonstrance in an English court 
of justice. I was told by a by-stander, with 
whom I entered into conversation, that if found 
guilty, the prisoner would be conducted to an 
underground apartment used for the purpose, and 
privately executed, the law of the State of New 
York, from motives that ought to be appreciated 
in England, prohibiting public executions. It is 
also customary there to allow criminals more 
time than in England, to prepare for the awful 
change they are doomed to undergo. 

I was informed by a friend that there are 



AMEK1CAN LAW. 23 

some very astute lawyers in America, and I sub- 
sequently had opportunities to test the accuracy 
of the remark. Their code, however, differs 
materially from the English, although professing 
to be based upon its principles ; and has the pre- 
eminent advantage of being pretty free from the 
intricacies and incongruities that so often tend 
to defeat justice in the mother-country, and 
render proceedings at law so expensive and per- 
plexing. The slave laws (called the " code noir "), 
adapted for the Southern States, must, however, be 
excepted, for it is notorious, that to subserve the 
ends of interested parties, they have been framed 
so as to present what may with propriety be 
termed a concatenation of entanglement and in- 
justice to the slave subjects ; the very wording 
of many of these enactments, carrying unmis- 
takable evidence of their being concocted for the 
almost sole protection of the slave-owners. 

Adjoining the Town-hall, or separated only by 
an avenue, is a heavy, monastic-looking building, 
used as a bridewell, and called the City Peniten- 
tiary. Having remained a considerable time in 
the hall where the trial was going on, the agonized 
state of the prisoner and sickening details of the 
murder caused a disinclination for the present to 
continue my perambulations, so I stepped into 
the Cafe de Y Independence, in Broadway, and 
called for a port-wine sangaree, endeavouring, 



24 THE MARINE BATTERY PROMENADE. 

while I sipped it, smoked a cigar, and read the 
Courier and Inquirer, to forget the scene I had 
just witnessed. Leaving soon after, I pursued my 
way down Broadway, passing Peel's Museum and 
the Astor House, to the Battery Marine Promen- 
ade. This is a delightful spot, the finest in point 
of situation (although not in extent) of the kind 
I ever saw, the Esplanade at Charleston in South 
Carolina, of which I shall have by-and-by to 
speak more particularly, being excepted. 

Ladies and gentlemen were promenading up 
and down, under the umbrageous foliage of 
the lofty trees which skirt the Battery Park, 
and which were as yet unscathed by the recent 
frosts, forming a delightful retreat from the 
scorching rays of an American sun. The sea view 
from this point, with the adjacent scenery, is 
interesting and attractive ; the broad expanse of 
ocean in the distance, the highlands looming in 
the perspective, the numerous aquatic birds 
skimming the surface of the estuary, and the 
picturesque fort and woody shores of New Jersey, 
all tending to diversify the scene and add to its 
natural beauty. I afterwards visited this place 
over and over again, and every succeeding visit 
added to my admiration and enhanced its attrac- 
tions. To the left lies, in panoramic grandeur, 
the harbour, literally teeming with ships of all 
sizes and all nations ; while, on the right, the 



BROOKLYN AND THE NAVY- YARD. 25 

entrance of the majestic Hudson or north river, 
with crowds of magnificent steamers, traders to 
Troy, Albany, and the West, forms a prominent 
feature in that direction. The passing and repass- 
ing of steamers and other vessels of home-traffic, 
and the more exciting arrival of ships from 
foreign parts, give a zest to the scene which must 
be witnessed to be fully appreciated. 

A day or two after, having obtained, through 
a • friend, leave of admission, I crossed over to 
Brooklyn, and visited the Navy-yard. The docks 
of this establishment contained, at this time, 
many specimens of American naval architecture 
of choice description ; amongst the rest, a frigate 
and several other ships of war lying in ordinary. 
Everything appeared to indicate good manage- 
ment and efficiency, as far as a landsman could 
judge. This was very discernible on board the 
vessels we were allowed to inspect, where the 
utmost order and cleanliness prevailed. The 
officers, I thought, seemed to exact great defer- 
ence from the men, and their martinet bearing 
ill accorded with a republican service, being 
decidedly more marked than on board British 
ships of war which I had visited at Deptford, 
Chatham, and elsewhere in England. Probably a 
stricter discipline may be found necessary, on 
account of the equality that exists in America, 
which might operate to render those under com- 



26 HOBOKEK 

mand more difficult of control, if such indepen- 
dence were allowed to be manifested. 

I found that the army and navy, in America, 
are chiefly manned by English, Dutch and Irish, 
not a few Poles being in the ranks of the former ; 
these are impelled, through lack of employment, 
and the additional inducement of a tolerably 
liberal pay, to join the service. The Americans 
themselves are too sensible of the inconveniences 
attending public services, as well as too acute, to 
follow such occupations in time of peace, though 
when danger has threatened, they have always 
shown themselves at the instant service of the 
State, and as citizen soldiers are not, perhaps, to 
be equalled in any other country. 

From the Navy-yard I proceeded to Hoboken ; 
this is a place of great resort in fine weather, and 
is situate nearly opposite the city of New York, 
or rather the eastern part of it. Here I found 
assembled a large company of pleasure-seekers in 
holiday attire, some lounging under the trees, 
others in groups at pic-nic, and not a small pro- 
portion of the gentlemen regaling themselves at 
the refreshment stalls or temporary cafes, erected 
on the grounds, on mint juleps and iced sanga- 
rees. The grounds are interspersed with park, 
woodland, and forest scenery, and are kept in 
admirable order, the managers studying to main- 
tain the appearance of original nature, and to 



THE DUELLING GKOUND. 27 

impress on the mind of the visitor, that he is 
ruralizing, far from city life, amongst primeval 
forest shades ; the contiguous scenery is not, how- 
ever, calculated to carry out the idea. It is 
quite the custom for American husbands to leave 
their families for the day, and enjoy relaxation in 
their own 'way, a practice that I apprehend 
would not be sanctioned by our English ladies, 
any more than it would be resorted to by English 
gentlemen, from motives of kindly and very 
proper feeling. Here, in a retired spot, is the 
duelling ground, which has attained no little no- 
toriety in that latitude, as the spot where many 
a knotty point has been quietly solved by the aid 
of a pair of pistols or Colt's rifles; although, for 
the credit of the citizens of New York and its 
neighbourhood, it must be recorded that they are 
not so ready to fly to this disgraceful alternative 
as their ensanguined brethren in the Southern or 
Slave States. 

My stay in New York being limited by pre- 
vious arrangements, I was anxious to get back to 
the city, although a day might well be taken up 
in ruralizing, and exploring the Arcadian beauties 
of Hoboken, the favourite resort of the citizens of 
New York. So, after a pretty general though 
cursory survey of its attractions, I recrossed, as 
I had come, in a ferry propelled by steam. The 
construction of this boat, a whole fleet of which 



28 NEWSPAPERS IN AMERICA. 

description were busily plying to and fro, being 
unique, and unlike any I had seen before, I 
must not pass it over without remark. In prin- 
ciple it consisted of two barge-like vessels placed 
side by side, a platform being laid on the top, for 
the engine, passengers, and steersman ; the latter, 
as in all American steam-vessels, of whatever 
size, being perched in an elevated round-house 
on deck. The stem and stern of this vessel were 
alike, the necessity of turning being thus al- 
together obviated, as in some of the steam-boats 
on the Thames. 

A practice prevails amongst newspaper pub- 
lishers in America, which is, I believe, only re- 
sorted to in England in cases of public emergency 
or unusual excitement, and that but seldom ; I 
mean that of posting on large placards the latest 
arrival of news, home or foreign ; thus, whenever 
you return home after a sojourn in the city, the 
eager inquiry is sure to be, " Any news up town? " 
This custom keeps up a lively interest in passing 
events, and disseminates amongst the citizens at 
large, the current news of the day, and if it has 
no other beneficial effects, prevents rumours, 
that commonly circulate in times of public ex- 
citement to the detriment often of many in- 
dividuals in crowded communities. I noticed the 
walls of New York thickly posted with placards 
chiefly of an inflammatory political character. 



AMERICAN PECULIARITIES. 29 

Many of these breathed agrarian principles, that 
would in Europe have been inadmissible, and 
would, without doubt, have led to the immediate 
arrest and imprisonment of the authors. Here, 
however, they are but little noticed by the popu- 
lace, and not at all, I believe, by the authorities. 
Cheap newspapers are pushed into the face of 
the passer-by, at the corner of every principal 
thoroughfare, the prices varying from two to six 
cents. These, as may be supposed, contain, to- 
gether with the current news, every description 
of scandal and trash imaginable, their personality 
being highly offensive, injurious, and reprehen- 
sible. Thus the freedom of the press is abused 
in every part of America, and this powerful en- 
gine of "good or ill" converted from a benefit (as 
it is if managed with propriety) into a public 
nuisance. 

One peculiarity, exceedingly annoying to an 
Englishman, which is observable even in good 
society in New York and elsewhere in America, 
is a prying curiosity as to the affairs of those 
•with whom they converse. Their habits at table 
also often fill one with disgust, and the want of 
good-breeding I witnessed on more than one 
occasion w^ould have been resented in England. 
This is the more remarkable, as the Americans 
entertain high notions of refinement, and yet, 
paradoxical as it may appear, seem to glory in 



30 COMMERCIAL LIFE. 

their contempt of good manners. I do not, how- 
ever, include the ladies in this remark ; on the 
contrary, I must unequivocally assert, that I 
always observed in them, not only in New York, 
hut in every other part of the North American 
continent which I visited, the greatest disposition 
to cover the misdoings of the opposite sex, and a 
great degree of cultivation and politeness ; al- 
though they are perfectly freezing in their 
manners before formal introduction, I do not 
doubt that there are' many among them of great 
refinement and powers of intellect, their personal 
appearance being also consonant with their 
known amiability. 

The bustle and drive in the trading quarters 
of the city is very great. The merchants and 
their assistants have a hurried manner of doing 
business, discernible in a moment to a stranger, 
which is much to be deprecated, and too often 
leads, as I afterwards found, to disastrous results. 
Business with these men is in general quite a " go- 
a-head " sort of affair, and not being accompanied 
with method, in many cases leads to an embar- 
rassed state of circumstances. Thus it frequently 
happens, that on investigation, the assets of a 
merchant who has stopped payment and is a sup- 
posed bankrupt, realize more than enough to 
pay the creditors, and the party finds to his 



NO CHURCH-GOING BELLS. 31 

agreeable surprise, that his position is not so bad 
after all. 

The churches and other places of public wor- 
ship in New York have a temporary appearance, 
the steeples of the former being, when I visited 
the city, chiefly of painted wood. This, I believe, is 
partly the reason why bells are not used, although 
a friend in whose presence I noticed this, stated 
that contempt for so English a custom had much 
to do with their disuse. If so, the prejudice is 
not confined to New York alone, for I was not 
cheered by the inspiriting sound of a peal in any 
other part of the Union I visited, although I 
think I have heard they are in use in Phila- 
delphia and some of the eastern cities. 

The time I had allotted to remain in New 
York having expired, and being anxious to pro- 
ceed on my route before the close of navigation, I 
reluctantly bade adieu to my kind friends in that 
city, and made preparations to pursue my way to 
the more western part of the Union, hoping to 
reach the Mississippi country before the season 
when the rivers and canals leading to it would be 
locked up in ice. 



32 I START FOR ALBANY. 



CHAPTER II. 



" See how yon flaming herald treads 
The ridged and rolling waves, 
As, crashing o'er their crested heads, 

She bows her surly slaves ; 
With foam before and fire behind, 

She rends the clinging sea, 
That flies before the roaring wind, 
Beneath her hissing lea." 

Holmes — The Steam Boat. 



My first stage, in proceeding to the interior of 
the country, was to Albany, 160 miles north of 
New York. To effect this, I took passage on 
board a splendidly-equipped steamer, called the 
Narraganset, and esteemed at the time the 
swiftest boat on the Hudson River. I must 
confess I was rather timid when I did so, for the 
reckless manner in which the crack boats are 
run, in order to maintain their character for 



PITCH FOR FUEL. 33 

celerity, is proverbial, and, as may be supposed, 
is little consonant with safe travelling. The 
almost constant recurrence of steam-boat ex- 
plosions and consequent sacrifice of life, reports 
of which are daily to be seen in the newspapers, 
weighed somewhat heavily on my mind, and the 
latent fear was not lessened by seeing four 
barrels of pitch rolled on board, the very 
moment I set foot on the deck of the Narra- 
ganset I had to console myself, however, as I 
best could under the circumstances, and trust to 
Providence ; but had it not been for the payment 
of my fare, which had previously been arranged, 
and its inevitable loss if I stopped behind, I 
believe I should have declined the passage, from 
my horror of a race. Although, before the boat 
got under weigh, my lurking fears of explosion 
were great, they were much enhanced just after 
starting, in consequence of an opposition boat 
being loosed from her moorings at the same 
minute that our vessel got clear of the levee. 
This accounted for the barrels of pitch I had 
seen on deck, the heads of which were knocked 
out just as we entered the Hudson, and a portion 
of the contents thrown with the fuel into the 
roaring furnaces ; this powerful generator of 
caloric of course gave increased rapidity to the 
motion of the engines, and in a couple of hours 
we left our opponent far behind. 

D 



34 FURIOUS DRIVING. 

It is remarkable that, although the Americans, 
as a people, travel more, perhaps, than any other 
nation, so little attention is paid by them to 
safety in transit. It is openly avowed that 
nothing is more common than steam-boat ex- 
plosions and steam disasters of various kinds 
throughout this vast continent ; and where boats 
are constructed to carry 1000 or 1200 passengers, 
as is usual on the American rivers, the loss of 
life, in case of accident, is fearful to contemplate. 
I am aware that the subject has been discussed 
in Congress, and that the question of remedial 
measures has occupied the attention of the 
Executive during several successive President- 
ships ; but still the evil remains, and the public 
mind in America is almost daily agitated by 
disasters of this nature. As long as the rampant 
spirit of competition and desire to outvie their 
fellows, which prevails amongst a large class of 
Americans, is tacitly, if not openly, encouraged 
by the governing powers, such a state of things 
must exist, and will probably increase ; but it 
is a positive disgrace to a country possessing 
great natural attractions, and, on this account, 
visited by many foreigners, that they should by 
this system be exposed to daily peril of their 
lives. The acts of Congress lately promulgated, 
although apparently stringent, are virtually a 
dead letter, in consequence of the facilities for 



ARRANGEMENTS OF RIVER-STEAMERS. 35 

evasion, and the ingenuity of the offenders. The 
effort to outrun a rival is attended by an insane 
excitement, too often participated in by the 
passengers, who forget for the time that they are 
in a similar situation to a man sitting on a barrel 
of gunpowder within a few feet of a raging 
furnace. I frequently found myself in such a 
position, in consequence of this dangerous pro- 
pensity, and the remedy suggested to my mind, 
and which I recommend to others, was never to 
take a passage, on American waters, in a first- 
class steam-boat, as the principle acted upon is 
to maintain the character of a first-rater at all 
hazards, regardless of the life or limbs of the 
helpless passengers. 

The Narraganset, like most of the large river 
steamers, was constructed with three decks, and 
fitted up in sumptuous style. One large saloon, 
with a portion partitioned off for the ladies, serv- 
ing as a cabin and dining apartment. There is 
no professed distinction of class in the passengers 
on board steam-boats in America. I found, how- 
ever, that the higher grades, doubtless from the 
same causes that operate in other parts of the 
world, kept aloof from those beneath them. 

The scene from the upper or hurricane deck 
(as it is called) was very attractive. Flowing, as 
the river Hudson does, through a fine moun- 
tainous country, the magnificent scenery on the 



36 THE PASSENGERS. 

banks strikes the observer with feelings allied 
to awe. The stream being broad and tortuous, 
beetling crags, high mountains and bluffs, and 
dense forests, burst suddenly and unexpectedly 
into view ; fearful precipices abound here and 
there, amidst luxuriant groves and uncouth pine 
barrens, forming altogether a diversity that gives 
the whole the character of a stupendous pano- 
rama. 

Before we were out of the tide, which for 
miles flows up the river, our vessel grounded three 
times, but after puffing and straining for a con- 
siderable time, she got off without damage and 
pursued her onward course. Most of my fellow- 
voyagers were disposed to be distant and taci- 
turn, and so I enjoyed the grandeurs of the scene 
in solitary musings, to which the steamers, sloops 
under sail, and other vessels proceeding up and 
down the river, gave a pleasant enlivenment. 
The promenade deck, crowded with lady passen- 
gers and beautiful children, under a gay awning, 
added to the cheerfulness of the surrounding 
aspect, and the fineness of the weather, but for 
the fear of collapsing boilers, would have made 
the trip one of great enjoyment. 

Another drawback I had nearly forgotten, and 
as it serves to illustrate steam-boat and indeed 
all other travelling inconveniences in America, I 
must not pass it over ; I refer to the vulgarity of 



MILITARY COLLEGE. 37 

the men passengers, who, in default of better 
occupation, chew tobacco incessantly, and, to the 
great annoyance of those who do not practise 
the vandalism, eject the impregnated saliva over 
everything under foot. The deck of the vessel 
was much defaced by the noxious stains ; and 
even in converse with ladies the unmannerly 
fellows expectorated without sense of decency. 
The ladies, however, seemed not to regard it, and 
one bright-eyed houri I saw looking into the face 
of a long sallow-visaged young man, who had the 
juice oozing out at each angle of his mouth with 
disgusting effect, so that enunciation was dif- 
ficult. 

Some miles up the Hudson, on a high piece of 
table-land, amidst romantic scenery, stands in 
prominent relief the military college of West 
Point. It commands an extensive view, and, 
was, I believe, an important outpost during the 
late war. The young graduates were exercising in 
parties on the parade ground under officers, and 
appeared dressed in dark jackets with silver- 
coloured buttons, and light blue trowsers. We 
saw the targets used by the graduates in artillery, 
who practise on the river banks ; at least, it was 
so stated by a fellow-passenger, who either was, 
or pretended to be, acquainted with all the affairs 
of that college. 

Beneath the summit of a high bluff, covered 



38 KOSCIUSKO. 

with wood, contiguous to the college, I observed 
a monument or obelisk, which I ascertained to 
have been erected to the memory of Kosciusko, 
a Polish patriot, who took a prominent part in 
the annihilation of British rule in America, 
It had a very picturesque effect, and was re- 
garded with feelings of veneration by many of 
the American passengers, one of whom paid a 
tribute to the departed hero, which he wound up 
by observing with nasal emphasis and lugubrious 
countenance, " If twarnt for that ere man, wher'd 
we be, I waunt to know ; not here I guess/' This 
sentiment, although I could scarcely see the point 
of it myself, elicited half-a-dozen " do tells " and 
" I waunt to knows " from those around ; expres- 
sions which, foolish as they sound to English ears, 
are in common use in the northern and eastern 
states, when an individual acquiesces in, or is 
anxious to know more about, what is stated. 

As the scenery on the Hudson, although pictu- 
resque and highly romantic, savours somewhat of 
sameness, I shall forbear any further description 
of it. No one visiting America should omit, if 
possible, a passage to Albany, in order to enjoy, 
perhaps, the finest natural scenery in the world. 

The individual who delivered the eulogium I 
have noted on Kosciusko, stated, that at the time 
of the war, an immense chain cable was thrown 
across the river at- West Point, to prevent the 



ALBANY. 39 

British vessels proceeding to the interior, and this 
they in vain tried to destroy by firing chain or 
bar shots. 

After a favourable passage, we at length reached 
Albany, which is an extensive city, and the depot 
for produce, especially wheat, brought via the 
Erie Canal from the interior ; being, in fact, the 
storehouse of the trade to and from the interior 
States of the Union, west, as well as from Canada 
and the Lakes. It is finely situated on the west 
bank of the Hudson ; many of its inhabitants are 
descended from the first colonists, especially the 
adventurous and persevering Dutch, who, like 
the Scotch, cling with tenacity to the spot they 
fix upon, and quickly accumulate property. This 
city is continually growing in importance, from 
the vast number of small capitalists who flock 
there and settle ; and it will eventually, no doubt, 
vie with New York itself in wealth and im- 
portance. As I determined to make no stay 
here, but to proceed up the Erie Canal to Buffalo, 
I did not see much of this place, and must there- 
fore omit any lengthened description of it. From 
what I did see, it appeared a densely-populated, 
well-built city, laid out with much regularity, and 
boasting of many substantial buildings, several 
of the edifices being constructed of white marble. 

Having secured a passage on board a canal 
packet about to start, I at once embarked, and 



40 AN EBIE-CANAL BOAT. 

in a few hours after was running up the Erie 
Canal at the rate of six miles an hour, the boat 
being towed by four light horses of high mettle. 
The trappings of these animals were of a novel 
description, bells being appended to various parts 
of the harness, and streamers, or plumes of white 
hair and gaudy ribbons, floating in the air from 
the bridle of each. A postilion, in a suit of grey, 
with an otter-skin cap, rode on the rearmost or 
saddle horse, and his nonchalance and perfect 
command of his team were surprising. This boat 
was some sixty yards in length, and constructed 
only for passengers and their luggage. The in- 
terior formed a long saloon in miniature, fitted 
up with lounges, and tastefully decorated ; a 
promenade on the deck or top furnishing a good 
place for exercise. At night our saloon was con- 
verted into a general dormitory, a portion being 
partitioned off for the ladies, by ranges of shelves 
being suspended from the sides, on which were 
laid the mattresses, &c. Owing to the number of 
locks and stoppages at the miserable towns and 
villages on the canal banks, our passage to Buffalo 
took several days ; and the country being flat and 
uninteresting, although divided into farms, which 
in general appeared to be in a state of tolerable 
cultivation, I was not a little relieved when we 
began to approach the city. 

The formation of the Erie Canal was one of 



BUFFALO. 41 

those grand internal improvements frequently to 
be met with in that country, and which have 
contributed to its general prosperity in no small 
degree. The projector of this vast undertaking, 
De Witt Clinton, is justly esteemed by American 
citizens, who regard him as a public benefactor, 
and his name ranks with the founders of their 
independence. The canal runs, for a considerable 
distance before it reaches Buffalo, parallel with 
the lake, but separated from it by a sort of arti- 
ficial sea-wall. As we merged into the vicinity of 
this magnificent inland sea, the sun was shining 
brightly, and gave it the appearance of molten 
silver. As far as the eye could reach, a wide 
expanse of water presented itself, and the distant 
shores of Canada gave beauty to the scene. At 
Black-rock we could distinguish the sites of the 
British fortifications, from which in the last war 
red-hot cannon-balls were ejected, to the dismay 
of the terrified Americans, and the destruction of 
many of their houses. 

Buffalo is a flourishing city on the border of 
Lake Erie, and about twenty miles south of the 
Falls of Niagara. It is within the boundary 
of the state of New York, and has of late years 
greatly increased in extent, wealth, and popula- 
tion. The old town, quite an inconsiderable place, 
on the site of which the present city has risen, 
phcenix-like, was burnt to the ground during the 



42 CANADA. 

late war, by some British officers, who made a 
sortie from the Canada shores ; which circum- 
stance, having been handed down from father to 
son, still rankles in the bosoms of many of the 
older inhabitants, who do not fail to state their 
belief that retributive justice will eventually be 
administered by the entire subjugation of Canada. 
During my rather prolonged stay in Buffalo, I 
had frequent opportunities of discovering that 
the most rancorous feelings exist on the subject ; 
and in proof of this it may be remembered by the 
reader that the Canadian insurgents were assisted 
at the late insurrection by supplies of stores from 
this city. These were conveyed to Navy Island 
by the steamer Caroline, which was subsequently 
seized, and sent over the Falls of Niagara by the 
British troops, a number of the crew being cruelly 
massacred. 

From inquiries made of parties well informed 
on the subject, both in Canada and the United 
States, I am convinced that the public act of Sir 
John Colborne, before quitting the governorship 
of the province, in 18.35, viz., the allotment or 
appropriation of 346,252 acres of the soil, as a 
clergy reserve, and the institution of the fifty- 
seven rectories, was the chief predisposing cause 
of the insurrection. By this Act a certain por- 
tion of land in every township was set apart for 
the maintenance of " a Protestant clergy/' under 



TENDENCY TO REBELLION. 43 

which ambiguous term, the clergy of the Church 
of England have always claimed the sole enjoy- 
ment of the funds arising from the sale of such 
portions of land. This is looked upon by dis- 
senters of all denominations as a direct infringe- 
ment of the original intention of the Act, which 
they maintain was for the purpose of aiding the 
Protestant cause at large against the innovations 
of the Eoman Catholic Church. Much ill-will 
and sectarian prejudice are the natural conse- 
quence ; in fact, the Act is a perfect apple of 
discord throughout the Canadas, and has en- 
gendered more animosity and resentment than 
any one legislative act, sanctioned by the Home 
Government, since the acquisition (if so it can be 
called) of the country. It is an indelible disgrace 
to England, that such a manifestly bigoted and 
narrow-minded policy should have been allowed 
to continue so long ; and I am fully persuaded 
that this enactment, which, there is little doubt, 
originated in sectarianism, perpetuates a degree 
of rancorous feeling in the minds of people there, 
that is sufficient to account for the disaffection 
and tendency to rebellion that ever and anon 
displays itself; and that to remove this blister, 
and allow the application of these funds to all 
creeds alike, would be to restore peace, and con- 
vert doubtfully-affected communities to allegiance. 
If there is one consideration that ought to weigh 



44 POPULATION AND TRADE OF BUFFALO. 

in the minds of the British as a people, to en- 
deavour to rivet the affections of the Canadians, 
more than another, and prevent the ultimate 
cession of that country to the Americans, it is, 
that the dependency affords now the only asylum 
for those persecuted outcasts of humanity, the 
slaves of the United States. Canada, the land 
of freedom, is associated in their minds with 
paradisaical thoughts of happiness — and many 
a heart-stricken creature in the Southern States 
of America, as I had many opportunities of as- 
certaining, toils on in content, with " Canada n 
in view, as the ultimatum of his hopes and the 
land of his redemption. 

The population of Buffalo is fluctuating, owing 
to the vast number of emigrants who are con- 
stantly arriving, en route to Ohio, Michigan, 
and the far West, It averages in population, 
about ten thousand. The city is not of great 
extent, and consists in chief of one principal 
thoroughfare, called Maine-street, which is wide, 
the lower part terminating at the water's edge, 
along which spacious stores are erected for the 
reception of wheat and goods in transit. The 
harbour is formed by an arm of Lake Erie uniting 
with Buffalo river. Here are always congregated 
a large fleet of steamers, many of them of levi- 
athan dimensions, which are employed in running 
to and from Detroit, in Michigan, and the inter- 



NIAGARA. 45 

mediate ports, as well as in the Upper Lake 
trade. Being quite a depot, Buffalo bids fair, 
ere the lapse of many years, to be the grand 
emporium of the West. The public buildings do 
not deserve much notice ; the Eagle Theatre, a 
joint-stock concern, being the only building of 
much interest. There are, however, several spa- 
cious hotels, and two or three banks, that boast 
some architectural merit, although much, I be- 
lieve, cannot be said as to their stability. The 
lateral streets are rather obscure, and, not being 
regularly built upon, give the city an unfinished 
look. These are, however, dotted here and there 
with chateaux, having good gardens well ar- 
ranged. The Niagara Railway station is situated 
to the left of Maine-street, about half-way up 
that premier thoroughfare. 

At night the distant moan of the Niagara falls 
was audible, and this, together with what I had^ 
heard and read, made me very anxious to visit 
the spot. Accordingly, one splendid morning I 
started by train for the purpose. For some miles 
before we reached Niagara, we constantly heard 
the roar of the rushing waters, and were thus 
prepared for the stupendous scene that burst 
upon the view, as we alighted at the doors of 
that ne plus ultra of modern hostelries, the 
Pavilion Hotel. 

My powers of description will fall short of 



46 THE FALLS OF NIAGARA. 

conveying to the mind of the reader the awful 
grandeur of this cataract, so often commented 
upon by travellers. The first impression felt by 
me was, that the whole substratum on which I 
stood, which seemed to tremble, was about to be 
swept away by the vast inundation. It was not 
the height of the falls, but the immense body of 
water, which comprehends, with constant accu- 
mulations from the tributaries on the way, the 
overflowings of Lakes Erie, Superior, Michigan, 
and Huron. The astonishing effect of such a 
body of water, dashed abruptly over a precipice 
of 150 perpendicular feet, may be conceived; 
such is the momentum of this immense volume 
of fluid, that, when it strikes the rocky bed at 
the base of the cataract, it rebounds in a thick 
cloud of vapour — and when the sun's rays inter- 
cept it, as was the case when I arrived there, a 
^beautiful rainbow of vivid colours encircles the 
area of the chasm, and, together with the natural 
curiosities and situation of the entire scene, pre- 
sents to the amazed beholder, the effect of a 
highly-executed picture in a frame of sun-light, 
although far surpassing the productions of human 
skill, which may well be said, in comparison, to 
sink into utter insignificance. 

A large company of visitors were assembled at 
the time of my arrival, probably from all parts 
of the world — so that I found it impossible to 



AN INDIAN VILLAGE. 47 

get a bed, unless I penetrated into the interior 
with a view to obtain accommodation at some 
farm-house, or crossed to the Canada side ; but, 
feeling too tired, after the day's excitement, to 
pursue either such course, I took an evening 
train and returned to Buffalo the same day, 
where I arrived at 9 p.m. 

About three miles from Buffalo is an Indian 
village, called Tonawanda. I frequently saw 
parties of the inhabitants, who resort to the city 
to dispose of their wares and produce. Some of 
the warriors were fine athletic fellows, of great 
stature, the lowest I saw being over six feet in 
height. They were clothed in tanned buck-skin, 
curiously fringed and ornamented with porcu^ 
pine-quills richly dyed ; their squaws (wives) 
being enveloped in fine Canadian blue broad 
cloth, their favourite costume ; the crimson or 
other gaudy-coloured selvedge forming a con- 
spicuous ornament. 

Like all the aborigines of America, they cling 
with tenacity to primeval habits and customs, 
resisting every attempt made by the white popu- 
lation, to make or persuade them to conform to 
civilized life. The ill-usage they have been sub- 
jected to by the Americans, may, however, 
account for this in a great measure. They were 
described to me by one of the residents as a 
dissipated set of fellows, who squandered all they 



48 DRUNKEN INDIANS. 

got in " fire-water/' as they term ardent spirits, 
and when inebriated are so quarrelsome that it 
is dangerous in the highest degree to irritate 
them. 

Not very long after I arrived, a circumstance 
occurred that threatened most fearful conse- 
quences. The Indians whom I have before re- 
ferred to were in the frequent habit, when they 
came to the city, to dispose of their produce (for 
many of them followed husbandry) of getting so 
tipsy, that there was continual danger of blood- 
shed ; their natural animosity on such occasions 
being roused with fearful vehemence, so that the 
authorities were compelled to adopt some steps 
to remedy the evil. It was no uncommon oc- 
currence to see an Indian waggon by the road- 
side, with its pair of horses sans driver, who 
might have been found either drunk or quarrel- 
ing at the other end of the city. And although 
the horses were always impounded, and a fine 
inflicted, still the nuisance continued without 
abatement, in fact, was rather on the increase. 
The new Mayor, being a man more alive than his 
predecessor to this evil, caused a regulation to 
be passed by the Civic Council, that any Indian 
found so far the worse for liquor in the streets of 
Buffalo as to be incapable of taking care of 
himself, should be punished by being made to 
work on the high roads for a short period, with 



INDIANS TO THE RESCUE. 49 

an iron ball and chain attached to his leg. When 
this law was promulgated, there was a strong 
impression <that the Indians would show resist- 
ance. This was soon found to be a correct view 
of the case, for not a week had elapsed before 
two warriors were brought before the Mayor, 
and sentenced to ten days' probation at road- 
mending, in pursuance of the decree. They had, 
however, only been at work two days in the 
upper part of Maine-street, in charge of two 
constables, when a large body of their fraternity, 
armed cap-a-pie, entered the city, and, with 
horrid yells and brandished tomahawks, rescued 
the culprits, knocked off their chains, and carried 
them in triumph to the Indian village, amidst 
fearful threats of fire and blood. As this attack 
was unexpected, no resistance was offered ; and 
although there was much discussion afterwards, 
about the laws being vindicated and an example 
being made, the matter, from motives, no doubt, 
of public safety, was allowed to drop, and for 
the future the red men had it all their own way, 
although there were certainly signs of amend- 
ment, and the evil decreased to a very great 
extent. The Indian maxim being, "Finn in 
friendship but ruthless in war/' there is little 
doubt that the course pursued on this occasion 
by the city authorities, was the best under such 
circumstances. 

E 



50 LAKE ERIE. 

Lake Erie is a fine piece of water, being 
265 miles long, from Buffalo to Detroit, the two 
extreme ends, and averaging about 60 miles 
broad. At its north-east end it communicates 
with Lake Ontario and the Canadian shores, by 
the gut or strait of Niagara. Towards the west 
end are numerous islands and banks, which are 
furnished with light-houses for the guidance of 
the mariner. Its waters wash the foot of Maine- 
street (Buffalo) where they meet the river from 
which that city takes its name. It is frequently 
visited by furious gales, which play havoc with 
the steamers, many of which are annually 
wrecked. 

While I remained in Buffalo, I took several 
excursions to the towns that skirt this beautiful 
inland sea. On one of these occasions, the 
steamer was driven by stress of weather to take 
shelter in the small harbour of Huron, some 
distance up the lake ; this we reached with 
much difficulty, the violence of the sea threaten- 
ing every moment the total destruction of the 
vessel. As we entered the harbour, the air rang 
with a shout of welcome from the inhabitants of 
the place, who had been watching our perilous 
progress in great anxiety, and were assembled at 
the end of the little pier. Here we remained for 
two days and nights, the wind blowing all that 
time with the fury of a hurricane ; the lake, 






HURON. 51 

during the storm, presenting the appearance of 
the sea in a stiff north-wester, the white-crested 
waves rising in violent commotion to a fearful 
height. 

Huron is but a small and uninteresting place, 
situate in a most unwholesome locality, lying 
opposite to a murky swamp, whose poisonous 
vapours spread disease and death around. It is 
the highway to Sandusky city, an inland border 
town, rendered famous for the obstinacy with 
which the inhabitants and a body of U. S. In- 
fantry defended a fort there against the attacks 
of the British troops in 1812. Having ascer- 
tained the captain's intention not to sail until 
the day following, and it being described as a 
very attractive spot, I hired a horse, and, after 
a seven miles' ride through a country dotted with 
farm houses, which had a desolate look, and the 
lands appertaining to which w^ere subdivided by 
zigzag log fences (hedges being unknown in the 
back settlements), I reached the so-called city, 
which is built in nearly the form of a parallelo- 
gram, the area of greensward having a pretty 
effect. Here are some good hotels, and a semi- 
nary or college for young ladies, which is much 
patronized by the better classes of the northern 
and eastern states, especially New York. I 
looked in vain for the Fort, which has, since the 
war, been demolished ; but the landlord of the 



52 ACCIDENT TO A CANOE, 

hotel at which I afterwards dined, took me to its 
site, and related several incidents that occurred 
in connection with the fortress, and the struggle 
between the belligerent parties at the time. As, 
however, I considered these somewhat apocry- 
phal, from several of his relations failing to hang 
together, and his decided bias against the 
Britishers, as he called the English, I shall not 
trouble the reader with the details. After view- 
ing the place and its suburbs to my satisfaction, 
and after an excellent dinner of green maize and 
venison, I rode back to the steamer. 

It was towards evening when I arrived ; and, 
as I approached Huron, by the banks of the creek 
that divides the swamp I have mentioned, and 
which was unusually swollen, I noticed a canoe 
that had broken loose from its moorings, drifting 
clown the current ; a moment afterwards the 
owner arrived in breathless haste, to endeavour 
to save it from destruction ; his exertions were, 
however, useless, and, finding there was no alter- 
native, he hailed the bystanders, and offered the 
reward of a dollar to any one who would swim 
to and paddle the canoe on shore ; this offer was 
eagerly caught at by a tall man, of great mus- 
cular power, who was amongst the crowd, and 
who at once threw off his coat and plunged into 
the stream. This was very rapid, and, after a 
few moments battling with the turbid current, 



AND A MAN DROWNED. 53 

he was overpowered ; uttering a loud cry for 
assistance, which I shall never forget and which 
rang in my ears like a death knell, he dis- 
appeared from the view of the spectators, and, 
being probably entangled in the trees and debris 
that were floating down the torrent, he did not 
rise again. A loud wail arose from the terrified 
assemblage, who were unable to render the poor 
fellow any assistance, and who ran about in 
frantic excitement The canoe was lost, being 
carried at a rapid rate into the open lake, where 
it capsized, and sunk immediately. After drag- 
ging for the body for upwards of an hour, it was 
fished up from under some logs of timber moored 
some distance below w T here the catastrophe oc- 
curred. The body being landed and placed on 
the bank, a loud altercation ensued as to the 
means to be used to attempt resuscitation — a vain 
hope — but still persisted in by those assembled. 
Some wanted to roll it on a barrel, others to 
suspend it by the heels, that the water might be 
voided. At length a doctor arrived, and, after 
some inquiry, pronounced effort useless, from the 
time the body had been under water. This at 
once damped the ardour of the crowd, although 
it did not discourage a female, who had taken a 
prominent part in the operations, and who, with 
that true womanly tenderness and solicitude 
which do honour to her sex, and which are 



54 BULL-FROGS. 

nowhere more conspicuous than in America, in- 
sisted upon the corpse being taken to a neigh- 
bouring house, where, like a ministering angel, 
she persevered in her efforts for a considerable 
time, although of course without effect. 

The banks of Lake Erie, in the vicinity of 
Huron, are thickly studded with small trees and 
coppice wood. This scenery, being interspersed 
with open natural meadow-land, gives it a park- 
like aspect, and several spots would, graced with 
a mansion, have formed an estate any nobleman 
in Europe might have been proud of, the shores 
of Canada, looming in the hazy distance, giving 
a fine effect to the scene. 

The noise and disagreeable odour arising from 
the bull-frogs and other reptiles that infest the 
swamp opposite the village at night, filled the 
air, and rendered it impossible for me to sleep. 
As I lay restless on my bed, I suddenly heard a 
gun fired, and, starting up in some alarm, I 
hastily put on my clothes and descended to the 
bar of the hotel. Here several of the inmates 
were assembled, and were preparing to cross the 
creek with lanterns, to explore the swamp, cries 
of distress having been distinctly heard, as of 
some benighted traveller who had lost his way. 
After listening intently, and firing several rifles 
to guide the wanderer or apprize him that assis- 
tance was at hand, the party crossed the creek 



PERISHED IN THE SWAMP. 55 

in a canoe, and moved along the skirts of the 
morass, hallooing loudly all the time ; the cries, 
however, heard only at intervals at the com- 
mencement, became gradually indistinct, and at 
last ceased altogether. After an ineffectual search 
for an hour or more, the party again turned 
towards Huron, strongly impressed with the be- 
lief, that the unfortunate being had sunk with 
his horse in the soft bed of the swamp, which is 
some miles in extent, and had perished miserably. 
The day following, I visited the nearest point 
from which the cries were heard, but I could 
discern no sign of the sufferer, nor could I even 
trace footmarks ; this, however, is not remarkable, 
as they would speedily be obliterated by the many 
reptiles nurtured in the morass. It was after- 
wards questioned, whether the supposed wanderer 
was only a catamount, a species of jaguar that 
emits doleful cries at night. 

The storm having abated, I soon after returned 
on board, and in due course reached Buffalo, 
where I had the pleasure of meeting with an old 
acquaintance, from whom I had long been sepa- 
rated, and who had delayed his intended voyage 
up the lake, to await my return. A large pro- 
portion of the population of Buffalo are people 
of colour^ and one quarter of the town is almost 
exclusively inhabited by them ; many of these, I 
regret to add, are living in a state of degradation 



56 

pitiable to behold, apparently without the least 
endeavour being made by their white fellow- 
citizens to improve their condition. Some of these 
coloured people keep eating-houses, for the ac- 
commodation of those of their own complexion, 
but the greater number are employed as stokers 
and steam-boat hands. A few of these men, des- 
pite the prejudice that exists (and it is nowhere 
in the Union more marked than in Buffalo), rise 
above the common level, and by that probity of 
character and untiring energy, which I believe 
to be inherent in the race, become men of sub- 
stance. 

One instance of this deserves especial notice, 
as the subject of it had, entirely by the good 
qualities mentioned, amassed a fortune, and had 
married a woman of English birth. I was in- 
troduced to this individual some time after my 
arrival in Buffalo, and his singularly correct views 
and uprightness of character made me partial to 
his company. His wife was a notable, well-in- 
formed, good-looking woman, about forty years 
of age. Irrespective of colour, I certainly admired 
her discrimination in the choice of a partner, al- 
though she was looked down upon by the wives 
of the white citizens, and, in common with her 
husband, was almost entirely shunned by them. 
There may, perhaps, have been a higher con- 
sideration than that of a good settlement to cause 



MAPJUED TO A WHITE WOMAN. 57 

an English woman in this instance to marry a 
dark mulatto ; but I was always of opinion, and 
she confirmed this by hints dropped casually, that 
the consideration of a fortune had more to do 
with the alliance than love. This gentleman kept 
a good house, and had many servants. His wife 
being fond of amusements, he hired a box for 
her use at the Eagle Theatre, which she always 
attended alone, the etiquette of the white citizens 
not permitting his attendance with her. He ap- 
peared almost always in a desponding mood, a 
tendency arising entirely from the insulting de- 
meanour used towards him by the citizens ; and 
he frequently talked of removing to Canada, or 
the far West, to avoid the treatment he was sub- 
jected to at the hands of a pack of young scoun- 
drels, who took every opportunity to annoy and 
treat him with indignity for marrying a white 
woman. The consequence was, that neither he 
nor his wife scarcely ever ventured out. If they 
did so, it was never in company, and usually 
after dark. I was politely offered the use of their 
box at the theatre during my stay, and on one 
occasion availed myself of the offer. But I never 
ventured again — the box was evidently marked, 
and during the performance I was subjected to 
the most disgusting remarks and behaviour from 
the audience. Indeed, this was carried so far, 
that I retired long before the curtain dropped. 



58 ANTI-AMALGAMISTS. 

So intent were his fellow-citizens on annoying 
this inoffensive man, that soon after he was 
mobbed in Maine-street by the young despera- 
does I have referred to, who, from their deter- 
mined opposition to intermixed marriages, were 
known in the place as " anti-amalgamists." 

On this occasion poor P nearly lost his 

life, and, but for running, would, no doubt, 
have done so ; as it was, he was much burnt 
about the head and neck, the ruffians in the 
scuffle having set fire to his frock-coat, which 
was of linen. 

It is rather remarkable that, at St. Louis, on the 
Missouri, some ten months afterwards, 1 met this 
very man, he having purchased some government 
land in a remote part of that state. Our meet- 
ing was quite accidental, for I crossed the street 
and accosted him as he was hurrying along. In 
the course of our interview he pressed me ear- 
nestly to go up the country with him ; but this 
I declined from motives of prudence, the route 
lying through a slave-holding state, where a white 
and coloured man travelling on terms of equality, 
would be sure to excite suspicion. He had a 
small bundle of papers under his arm, and on my 
remarking he appeared intent on business, he 
stated they were his free papers, and that not 
ten minutes before he had been challenged to 
produce them ; but this, he said, would not have 



A NIGGER BOARDING-HOUSE. 59 

prevented his arrest and detention in the city 
gaol until the authorities of Buffalo had been 
written to under suspicion of his being a fugitive, 
had he not taken the precaution, before he left 
that city, to obtain from the mayor a certificate of 
his intention to proceed to the Missouri country, 
and the object of his visit. He told me that 
if he liked his purchase, he should build a house 
on it, and cultivate the land as a farm, as his 
continued residence in Buffalo, after the dispo- 
sition to annoy him shown by the citizens, ren- 
dered his stay there out of the question. I 
afterwards dined with him at his " hotel/' which 
was an obscure tavern in an unfrequented part 
of the city, in and about which I saw several 
coloured people. I afterwards ascertained that 
this was what is there derisively termed a " nig- 
ger boarding-house/' and that the keepers of 
superior hotels would not think of accommo- 
dating a coloured person even for a night. From 
subsequent experience in such matters, I have 
no doubt that this version was a true one. 

The hotels and cafes in the Slave States are all 
frequented by slave owners and dealers ; these 
would not think of putting up at quarters where 
" coloured folks" were entertained. This distinc- 
tion is so marked, that no negro would attempt 
to apply for refreshment at the bar of such places, 
as the inevitable consequence of such a liberty 



60 RESURRECTION OF TWO BRIGS. 

would be refusal, if not summary ejectment. It 
is therefore the custom, in all southern towns 
and cities, for the negro population to resort to 
places kept expressly for the accommodation of 
coloured people. These are not always kept by 
men of their own complexion, but often by 
white men, who, having become friendly with 
them, have lost caste with the whites, and are in 
fact discarded by them. 

In the harbour of Buffalo, I saw tw T o brigs, 
that during the war in 1812 had been captured 
by the Americans, and sunk somewhere up the 
lake on the American side. These had recently 
been raised by means of apparatus invented by 
an ingenious American. They were strong, 
substantially-built brigs, of about 250 tons bur- 
den each. I was surprised to find what a pre- 
serving effect the lake water had upon the 
timber, the wood being almost black in colour, 
and so hard that it was difficult to make an 
impression upon it even with an axe. These 
vessels had been sold to a shipping company, and 
were at the time employed, I think, in the 
Chicago or Upper Lake trade. 

I had frequently heard of the number of 
rattle and other snakes to be met with on the 
banks of the lake, but these have been nearly 
exterminated by the settlers. During my stay 
in the suburbs I only found a few water-snakes, 



CLIMATE OF BUFFALO. 61 

basking in the sun amongst the wilderness of 
aquatic plants that cover the surface of the water 
in the creeks. 

The superstitious dread of inhaling the east 
wind blowing from the mouth of the lake, is 
now exploded, and is considered in the light of 
a bygone tale ; although, for three-quarters of 
a century, it was considered baneful even to the 
healthy. Consumptive patients are, however, 
soon carried off, the biting blasts from the 
Canadian shores proving very fatal in pulmo- 
nary complaints, and the winters being very 
severe. 

A plentiful supply of excellent fish of various 
sorts, is procured from the lake. These are 
salted in barrels, and find a ready market in the 
northern and eastern states. 

My abode in the city of Buffalo extended over 
the greater part of a year, and during this period 
I had frequent opportunities of witnessing that 
tendency to overreach that has, perhaps, with 
some justice, been called a disposition in the 
generality of Americans to defraud. I do not 
mean to stygmatize any particular class of men 
in this imputation, but I must record my decided 
conviction, arising from transactions with them, 
that business with the mass of citizens there is 
not that upright system that obtains with such 
successful results in the mother country, amongst 



62 FOR SALE. 

those engaged in commercial relations. Perhaps 
it would be but fair to make some excuse for 
men of this class, in a country whose hetero- 
geneous population, and consequent exposure to 
competition, renders it a struggle to obtain a 
livelihood. It is notorious that thousands of 
men in America are obliged, as it were, to 
succumb to this influence or become paupers, 
and are thus driven out of the paths of strict 
rectitude and honesty of purpose, and compelled 
to resort to all sorts of chicanery to enable them 
to make two ends meet. In no instance is this 
more observable than in the " selling " propensi- 
ties of the Americans. " For sale " seems to be 
the national motto, and would form an admirable 
addendum to the inscription displayed on the 
coins, " E pluribus unum" Everything a man pos- 
sesses is voluntarily subjected to the law of in- 
terchange. The farmer, the land speculator, and 
the keeper of the meanest grocery or barber's 
stall, are alike open to " a trade/' that is, an ex- 
change of commodities, in the hope or prospect 
of some profit, honestly or dishonestly, being 
attached to the transaction. This induces a 
loose, gambling propensity, which, indulged in 
to excess, often leads to ruin and involvement, 
and, if absolute beggary is deferred, causes 
numerous victims 'to be perpetually floundering 
in debt, difficulty, and disgrace. 



DEPARTURE FOR CLEVELAND. 63 



CHAPTER III. 



8 ' Then blame me not that I should seek, although I know not 
thee, 
To waken in thy heart its chords of holiest sympathy ; 
It is for woman's bleeding heart, for woman's humbled 

form, 
O'er which the reeking lash is swung, with life's red current 
warm." 

E. M. Chandler. 

On a fine morning in June, I took my departure 
from Buffalo, in the lake steamer Governor Porter, 
for the port of Cleveland in the state of Ohio. 
The sun was shining on the silvery bosom of the 
lake, which in a dead calm gave it a refulgent 
glassy appearance. We had not, however, been 
two hours at sea before the clouds began to collect, 
and a heavy gale came on with rapidity. This 
continued to increase until the day following, 
during which the vessel had passed Cleveland, 



64 DETROIT. 

the place of my destination, and was driving 
before a furious north-wester towards Detroit, 
at the head of the lake. The captain stated that 
all his endeavours to make the landing-place at 
Cleveland had been unavailing, but if those 
passengers whom he had engaged to land there 
would proceed with him on the voyage to his 
destination, he would land them on his return, 
which he said would probably be in three or four 
days. As this offer necessarily included board, 
the three passengers, who were in the same pre- 
dicament as myself, after a short consultation 
agreed to accept it ; and as time was not an 
object to me, I did not demur, for I much wished 
to have a view of the country in that direction. 
Had either of us dissented, the captain would, 
probably, have landed us at the next port, a 
result that would have involved the expense and 
inconvenience of a thirty miles' ride, or there- 
abouts, to Cleveland, in a rough stage, over 
rougher roads. 

The weather moderated towards sunset, and we 
had a very favourable passage to the head of the 
lake, and entering Detroit harbour, which lies at 
the foot of the town, I soon after landed,and took 
a stroll into it, It is not a very populous place, 
the inhabitants being, I should say, under 4000. 
The houses are in general, heavy dirty-looking 
buildings, though the streets are tolerably wide, 



HAGGARD EMIGRANTS. 65 

and built with regularity. It is, I believe, peo- 
pled principally by French and Dutch, who 
appeared to be in low circumstances, and who 
follow the usual town occupations. 

This town, which is essentially Gaelic in appear- 
ance, is situated on the west side of the strait, 
between Lakes St. Clare and Erie, and is within 
sight of Maiden in Canada, with the shores of 
which province a constant trade or communica- 
tion is kept up by steam. Here is situated an 
extensive government agency for the sale of land 
in Michigan ; whither, at the time, vast numbers 
of new settlers were daily proceeding in search 
of homes and happiness. I saw many of these 
on their way, and as they toiled to their new 
homes, they looked haggard, forlorn, and abject ; 
and I thought I could distinguish in almost all, 
especially the women, an aspect of grief that 
indicated they were exiles, who had left behind 
all that tended to make life joyous and happy, 
to seek a precarious existence in an unknown 
wilderness. As the town afforded few attractions, 
the only place of amusement being a temporary 
theatrical exhibition, I was not a little rejoiced 
when the vessel again started down the lake, 
which she did with every advantage of favourable 
weather. In due course we reached Cleveland, 
and, as I was anxious to proceed onwards, I took 
but a cursory view of the place ; which is, like 



66 a hornet's nest. 

Detroit, situated on a somewhat rising ground. 
It appeared a thriving town, and the hotels 
were in general superbly fitted up. 

As I was strolling towards the canal to take 
my passage to the Ohio river, a little incident 
occurred, which, as it illustrates a very old adage, 
I will not omit. Passing some low-built houses 
near the canal, my attention was arrested by the 
screams of a female, who uttered loud cries for 
assistance. 

Hastening to the door of the house from which 
the alarm proceeded, I lifted the latch in great 
trepidation, when I saw a man just about to strike 
a woman (who proved to be his wife) with an up- 
lifted chair. The fellow was vociferating loudly, 
and appeared in a towering passion. My first 
impulse was to cry out "Drop it \" when, lo ! as 
if I had, like Katerfelto, the by-gone professor of 
legerdemain, cried "Presto," the scene changed, 
and both man and woman, who were Americans 
of the lower class, commenced bullying me in 
right earnest. I made my retreat with some 
difficulty, as they seemed, both of them, inclined 
to serve me roughly for my well-intentioned, 
though, perhaps, mistimed interference. As I 
made my escape, however, I intimated, pretty 
loudly, that I should at once apply to a magis- 
trate on the subject, a threat, by-the-bye, that was 
little regarded, and only increased the showers of 



JOE SMITH. 67 

abuse levelled at me. As my appealing to a 
magistrate would be of little avail in the case of 
a family jar, and would certainly have entailed 
inconvenience and delay, I did not carry my 
threat into execution, wondering, at the same 
time, at my temerity in interfering in a quarrel 
between man and wife, which I now practically 
learnt, for the first time in my life, was to incur 
the unmitigated anger of both, and to learn how 
true it is that 

" Those who in quarrels interpose, 
Must oft expect a bloody nose." 

I visited the portion of the town appropriated 
by the Mormons as a residence. Here, in the 
midst of their dwellings, they had erected a' 
temple for worship, which, on their emigrating 
west, their arch-leader, Smith, prophesied would, 
by the interposition of heaven, be destroyed by 
fire. The prophecy was verified as to the fact, 
but heaven had, it appeared, little to do with it ; 
for it was ascertained to be the work of an in- 
cendiary of their sect, who was detected and 
brought to condign punishment. 

I w^as afterwards informed by an American 
gentleman, to whom I had a letter of introduc- 
tion, and who had been a great suiferer by these 
impostors, that some time before the great body 
of Mormons migrated to the interior, they started 



68 A MORMON BANK. 

a bank. Having managed to put a vast number 
of their notes in circulation, for which they re- 
ceived produce, they closed the doors, and left 
the public to be losers by their nefarious schemes. 
I had the misfortune myself, in my ignorance, to 
take from a dishonest store-keeper a ten-dollar 
bill of this spurious currency, and did not detect 
the imposture until I offered it to the captain of 
the boat I had engaged a passage in to La Belle 
Riviere, as the Ohio is called. I must mention, 
however, that I took it previously to the interview 
with the gentleman I have adverted to, and ac- 
tually, without knowing it, had the note in my 
pocket-book when he mentioned the default of 
these pseudo bankers. I paid ten dollars for a 
useful lesson. 

The passengers from Cleveland formed a motley 
group ; for, irrespective of French, Dutch, Ameri- 
cans, and Canadians, we had on board eight or 
ten families of the Mormon sect, following in the 
wake of their leaders, Smith and Bigdon, to 
their new settlement in the far west. These 
people were very reserved, and seemed inclined 
to keep aloof from their fellow-passengers. This, 
however, may be accounted for by the prejudice 
so justly existing at the time against them, as a 
body, from the causes I have already mentioned ; 
in fact, the indignation of the people could hardly 
be kept in check by the authorities, and lynching 



MASS1LL0N. 69 

was resorted to on more than one occasion. The 
men were clothed in drab broad-cloth, and wore 
large white hats ; their garb altogether resembling 
that of the more respectable Society of Friends, 
in America. The resemblance, however, ceases 
with the dress, for, if reports speak true, and 
they are many-tongued, they are very excep- 
tionable in their morality and general principles, 
amongst other peculiarities, polygamy being al- 
lowed, for the avowed purpose of extending and 
perpetuating the sect. 

Our progress was pretty rapid, though it lay 
through an uninteresting country, in many parts 
uncultivated and barren-looking. Massillon is a 
very flourishing town, with some good stores and 
two or three hotels. As the captain was obliged 
to make a short stay here, I went into the town 
and, stepping into an hotel to procure a cigar, 
I found a company engaged in earnest conversa- 
tion, interrupted at intervals by loud laughter. 
On inquiry, I was told that the landlord had that 
morning been played a Yankee trick by a travel- 
ling pedlar, who had stopped the previous night 
at his house. It appeared that the same man 
had some months before practised on the land- 
lord .; but, either supposing the matter blown 
over and forgotten, or, what is more likely, 
with a view to put another of his arts into 
exercise, he again put up at the same house. 



70 AN AMERICAN PEDLAR, 

The proprietor, however, at once recognized the 
pedlar, and after taxing him with the cheat 
he had practised on the former occasion, wound 
up his lecture by stating, in true American style, 
that if he again succeeded in cheating him he 
would forego the amount of his tavern expenses. 
The man exclaimed, " Done/' and at once it 
appeared set his wits to work to obtain the object, 
A few hours after the conversation, the fellow 
brought in from his waggon some boxes of fancy 
goods, and endeavoured to induce the landlady 
to purchase. This, however, no doubt prompted 
by her husband, she resolutely refused, and he 
had them removed to his room upstairs, as is 
customary. After breakfast, the following morn- 
ing, he called the landlady aside and said he 
forgot the day before to show her a fancy quilt of 
superior workmanship, and if she would only look 
at it he would be satisfied, as it was one of great 
beauty. She consented to this, and the man at 
once went to his waggon, which was now at the 
door, he being about to start, and brought in a 
box which contained, amongst numerous other 
articles, the quilt he had been eulogizing. The 
landlady was much taken with its appearance, 
and after some little persuasion consented to be- 
come the purchaser. Accordingly, the bargain 
was concluded, and the balance between his 
tavern bill and the article in question was 



WHO LIVED BY HIS WITS. 71 

handed over at the hotel bar to the pedlar, who 
at once started from the house, the landlord on 
his doing so jocosely remarking on the conversa- 
tion of the previous day, in reply to which the 
wily pedlar observed, that " he guessed it was all 
right/' Soon after the man left, the landlady 
called her spouse to the inner room, and showing 
him her bargain, said she had been induced to 
buy the quilt, because it was an exact match for 
the one in the large room up-stairs. This led to 
a female help (as servants are there called), being 
despatched to the room to fetch and compare the 
original with that newly purchased. The girl 
speedily returned in the greatest consternation, 
saying it had vanished. The truth now became 
apparent ; the artful pedlar had actually sold 
the landlady her own quilt ! 

This ludicrous circumstance led to the confu- 
sion I had noticed when I arrived ; the man had 
gone they knew not whither, and had it been 
possible to overtake him, I question whether he 
would have been pursued, the cleverness of the 
trick being highly applauded by the company, 
and the landlord feeling, perhaps, ashamed of 
being outwitted a second time, after himself 
giving the challenge. The ingenuity of American 
pedlars in cozening their countrymen, has long 
been proverbial, and in general, people are wary 
of them ; they have, however, I suppose by long 



72 A FIELD OF PIGEONS. 

practice, become such adepts at roguery, that 
however alive to their propensities, folks are 
daily victimized by such men. It was nothing 
new to hear a roguish action applauded, but on 
this occasion the company were vociferous in his 
praise, and declared they would certainly patro- 
nize him when he came that way again, for he 
deserved encouragement. 

After strolling through the town, which pre- 
sented little worth recording, I again returned 
to the boat, which proceeded on its way. I had 
frequently heard and read of those vast flocks of 
wild pigeons which periodically pursue their 
flight to milder latitudes : and, as the boat was 
now approaching the centre of the state of Ohio, 
where myriads of these birds were seen the year 
before, I anxiously watched the horizon for their 
appearance. For several days, however, I was 
doomed to disappointment, and gave it up in des- 
pair ; but a day or two after, when in the vicinity 
of the Tuscarawas river, it being about noon, 
the helmsman suddenly called out, " A field of 
pigeons/' This announcement called all hands 
to the promenade deck of the packet. Looking 
in the direction indicated, a heavy black cloud 
appeared in the far horizon ; this seemed to 
extend from right to left, and was so dense that 
the novices amongst us at once pronounced it, 
either a mistake or a hoax. The helmsman 



PLYING IN CLOUDS. 73 

declared that it was 'neither, and that we should 
soon be convinced of it. The cloud seemed now 
gradually and visibly to spread ; in truth, the 
whole firmament in that direction was totally 
obscured. By this time a general rummage had 
commenced in the boat for fire-arms ; the captain 
hailed the driver on the towing path, who pulled 
up, and the boat was moored by the canal side. 
We now landed, intending to replenish the larder 
of the vessel with what, to most of the passen- 
gers, was a rare treat. On the left bank of the 
canal, and on the banks of the river, which here 
ran parallel with it, was a forest of gigantic 
trees; and, as the birds were evidently making 
in that direction, it was decided that all those 
who wished to take part in the expected sport ? 
should proceed, and wait their passing this spot, 
in the hope that some would settle on the 
branches of the trees. Accordingly, after cross- 
ing the river by a rude bridge, which was very 
nearly half a quarter of a mile in length, we 
reached the intended spot after wading up to 
our knees in a swamp or turbary, and getting 
miserably bemauled by the briars and cane 
vines. We had not to wait long ; the birds, 
wearied by a long flight, were evidently attracted 
by the favourable resting-place, and in less than 
a quarter of an hour, the air was darkened with 
the hosts hovering over our heads ; the sound 



74 PIGEON-SHOOTING EXTRAORDINARY. 

of their wings defies description, those of my 
readers who remember the peculiar noise made 
by a single pigeon in its flight, may form a faint 
idea by multiplying the sound a million times. 
It in fact filled the air, and produced a startling 
effect. Thousands of the birds alighted on the 
trees, the branches of which snapped and crackled 
fearfully under the superincumbent load ; those 
of our party who were armed, continued to fire 
and load as fast as they possibly could. They 
brought hundreds to the ground, but still, 
through weariness, perhaps, the rest kept their 
station on the branches, and did not appear to 
heed the attack much — shifting their position 
or only flying off for a moment and then again 
alighting. By this time many of the settlers 
from the surrounding districts had arrived to 
share in the quarry. Thousands of birds were 
brought to the ground ; in fact, every discharge 
of the guns and rifles brought down showers to 
our feet; and the noise seemed to resemble our 
being engaged in action with a foe ; without, 
however, the dire effects of such a rencontre to 
ourselves. After bagging our game, of which 
we secured nearly two hundred brace, we re- 
turned to the boat, leaving the rest of the sport 
to those who chose to continue it. We had 
enough, and, for the remainder of the passage, 
were completely surfeited with pigeon fare, 



THE INDIAN-KILLER. 75 

administered by the boat's cook in all sorts of 
outlandish forms. In our progress onward through 
the state, we saw many carcases of these birds 
outside the villages, such numbers having been 
destroyed, that the inhabitants could not con- 
sume them, and they were accordingly thrown 
out as refuse. These birds were in good con- 
dition, and w r ere excellent eating. 

As the packet was likely to be detained for 
some hours at Zoar, a settlement about two miles 
beyond Bolivar, owing to a dispute between the 
captain and some officers connected with the 
canal, I availed myself of the opportunity, on the 
invitation of a very gentlemanly fellow-passenger 
from Connecticut, to visit a farm a few miles in 
the interior, where resided a celebrated character, 
named Adam Poe, surnamed by the inhabitants, 
the " Indian-killer/' who had acquired the sum- 
mit of a backwoods-man's fame, by some forty 
years ago shooting "Black-foot," a formidable 
Indian marauder, who, for a long period, spread 
consternation and alarm among the early settlers. 
As this exploit (whether justified by the circum- 
stances and times or not, I cannot pretend to 
say) was one that restored security among the 
settlers, and dispersed a body of Indians, who 
destroyed every white inhabitant they encoun- 
tered, and laid waste their farms, it is no wonder 
that Adam Poe was regarded as a great man. 



76 AN AGED SINNER. 

On arriving at the farm-house, which was one of 
the better description in that region, we were 
kindly welcomed by the son of the hero I have 
mentioned, who bore the father's patronymic, 
and after the usual hospitality, were ushered into 
an adjoining apartment, and introduced to the 
object of our visit. He was sitting in an arm- 
chair by the side of his wife, who, like himself, 
was far advanced in years, their united ages 
numbering 173. The old man, who was so feeble 
as to be unable to rise when we entered, saluted 
us with the usual " Glad to see you, strangers/' 
his spouse at the same time advancing tow T ards 
us to shake hands. He was evidently used to 
such intrusions ; for, after inquiry where we came 
from and whither bound, he began, in a tremu- 
lous voice, which, from his extreme age, was 
scarcely intelligible, to narrate his early adven- 
tures. It was absolutely shocking, as he became 
more animated by the subject, to hear the cool- 
ness with which the veteran related some of his 
bloody combats ; so much so, indeed, that I and 
my companion at once cut short his narration, 
being horrified at the turpitude of the aged sinner, 
who, although gasping for breath, and evidently 
on the verge of the unseen world, talked of his 
deeds of violence with an ardour that befitted 
a better cause. 

The old man dwelt at great length on his hair- 



WATCHING FOR BLACK-FOOT. 77 

breadth escapes and deeds of prowess ; but the 
destruction of the implacable "Black-foot/' was 
the absorbing subject. This chief, it appeared, 
had, with a small party, been hovering round 
Poe's farm for several nights, and the inmates 
were in great terror of a midnight attack ; the 
principal aim of the chief, being, it is supposed 
to despatch a man, whose activity had rendered 
him particularly obnoxious to his tribe, and whose 
bravery was acknowledged by the settlers far and 
jsaid near. 

After several nights passed in anxiety, every 
little circumstance, any unusual noise, the baying 
of a dog, a disturbance in the hog-pens, exciting 
the greatest apprehension, Poe determined on 
stealthily watching the enemy under covert of a 
hillock or embankment on the farm. He accord- 
ingly sallied out with his Indian rifle, in the haze 
of the evening, taking with him a supply of aqua 
vitce, as he facetiously said, to keep up his "dander." 
After watching a considerable time, every now 
and then applying his ear to the ground to listen 
for approaching footsteps (a plan invariably 
followed by Indians themselves), he ascertained 
that an Indian was in the vicinity ; again intently 
listening, he soon satisfied himself that the alarm 
he had experienced was occasioned by one indivi- 
dual only. Instantly on the qui-vive, he full- 
cocked his rifle, and, just as he descried the 



78 THE WAR-SCALP. 

Indian's head above the embankment he pulled 
with unerring aim the fatal trigger, when with an 
agonizing howl, the Indian toppled backwards 
down the embankment, and all was silent. Poe 
now sprang forward, and with his knife severed 
the "war scalp" from the head of the savage, and 
after securing his knife and rifle, returned to his 
home in high glee to announce the horrid achieve- 
ment. It was, however, deemed unsafe to venture 
out again that night, for fear of other Indians of 
Black-foot's band, who it was well known were in 
the neighbourhood. 

In the morning Poe sallied out to the place of 
reconnoitre with some of the inmates of the farm. 
Here they found,, stretched on the ground, welter- 
ing in gore, the vanquished warrior, who was now, 
for the first time, from a plume he wore, and some 
other peculiarity in his equipments, identified as 
the veritable " Sachem/' who had for months 
kept that settlement in a state of alarm. Poe 
was soon complimented by the settlers around, 
and from that day forward became a celebrated 
character. 

I was subsequently told on board the canal 
packet, that the Indian referred to, was not the 
notorious chief of that name, but a second-rate 
warrior, who, having headed a band of marauders, 
assumed the soubriquet. How far this may be 
correct, I cannot determine. I, however, fre- 



A CAMP-MEETING. 79 

quently heard Poe's name mentioned as a brave 
defender of the hearths and homes of the early 
settlers in the remote districts of Ohio. 

I could perceive that his son's wife (a matronly 
dame of about sixty), was adverse to such inter- 
views, as, to use her expression, " they brought 
the old man back to this world again, when he 
should be pondering on the next/' and that she 
was grieved at the recital of them ; indeed, she 
several times checked his expressions, when they 
bordered, as they not unfrequently did, on im- 
piety. She acted rightly, for there was evidently 
much more of the soldier than the Christian 
about the old man, and before we left I ex- 
pressed a hope that such visits would be dis- 
couraged, a suggestion that was received in a 
kindly spirit. 

After inspecting the farm, which was well 
stocked, and appeared to be cultivated in the 
most approved modern style, and was w r ell fenced 
with the usual rails, we started on our return to 
Zoar, where the packet had halted. On our way 
thither, we passed through a hamlet of primitive 
appearance, consisting of some half-dozen houses 
built of logs, at one end of which was a rudely- 
constructed meeting-house, belonging to the sect 
of Whitfieldite Methodists. The congregation was 
assembled, and the horses and vehicles belonging 
to those who resided at a distance, were tethered 



80 LOCUSTS. 

to the trees in the vicinity of the chapel. As I 
and my companion passed, the occupants were 
chanting a hymn previous to the discourse, which 
it appeared was a valedictory one, the minister 
being about to leave this for a more extensive 
field of pastoral labour. Having time to spare, 
and such an assembly on a week-day attracting 
our attention, from its rarity, we stepped in, and 
remained during the whole of the service, arriving 
at Zoar a few minutes before the boat started. 

As we passed through a densely-wooded district 
between Bolivar and Chillicothe, I observed that 
for many miles the trees were denuded of every 
green leaf, from the devastating effects of millions 
of locusts, which periodically visit the western 
states of the Union, to the dismay of the settlers. 
The trees in many places were at the time covered 
with these destructive insects. I went on shore 
and procured several, with the intention of pre- 
serving them. They were beautiful creatures, 
about ten times the size of an ordinary field 
grasshopper, and, except that their hind legs 
were longer in proportion to their size, the exact 
shape of that harmless little insect. Their colours 
are brilliant green, slate, and flamingo red, beau- 
tifully lined and variegated. The humming noise 
produced by these insects is very disagreeable, 
and fills the surrounding air with murmurs, while 
the wilderness look of the scene of their depreda- 



GAMBLING. 8 L 

tions has a depressing effect on the mind of the 
traveller. Their visits are much dreaded, as they 
are followed by the total destruction of foliage in 
the district, and in many instances, the young 
saplings die in consequence of their attacks. 

After a pleasant passage of four or five days, 
the packet arrived at the river junction ; and 
taking passage at once in a steamer which was 
waiting its arrival in the Ohio river, I was soon 
rapidly on my way to that fairy city of the west, 
Cincinnati. This is the largest city in the state 
of Ohio, and is the capital of Hamilton county. 
Fort Washington, a defence of some renown 
during the war, is two miles above, and opposite 
to the mouth of the Licking river. The broad 
bosom of th^e Ohio was here covered with steam- 
boats, employed in the Virginia, Missouri, and 
New Orleans trade. The wharves are com- 
modious, and a broad inclined plane, from the 
city to the water's edge, gives the former a fine 
appearance, as it rests majestically in the back- 
ground. 

As I was anxious to proceed to the State of 
Missouri, with as little delay as possible, I at 
once engaged a passage to St. Louis, and the 
following morning was steaming in the direc- 
tion of the falls, of St. Anthony. The passengers 
in this boat employed themselves nearly the 
whole of the route at games of cards, faro being 

G 



82 ST. LOUIS. 

the favourite. This predilection for gambling, 
which is generally carried to great extremes on 
board southern boats, was not, however, confined 
to the cabin, for I noticed the crew, at every 
spare interval, sitting about on deck, with packs 
of cards, completely absorbed in the game. The 
negro hands were particularly addicted to this 
vice, and a gentleman who was proceeding in the 
boat informed me that but a trifle of the earn- 
ings of boat-hands in general was spared from 
their devotedness to this ruinous practice. The 
effect of association with, and the example set 
by, white men given to gambling, will account, 
perhaps, for the habit. This moral pestilence is 
in vain prohibited by the state, and is pursued by 
all classes in the south with frenzied avidity. 

After twice running on shore, and meeting 
with sundry other stoppages and minor mishaps, 
through the mismanagement of the two engi- 
neers, we reached the city of St. Louis, to the 
gratification of myself and fellow-passengers. 
This is a place of considerable extent, although 
awkwardly built, and for the most part irregu- 
larly laid out. It is a considerable fur depot of 
the Hudson Bay Company ; and there is a re- 
cruiting station, from whence start expeditions 
of trappers to the Rocky Mountains. I saw a 
large party of these adventurers, who were about 
to start on an expedition to these remote con- 



A PARTY OF TRAPPERS. 83 

fines. It consisted entirely of young Frenchmen 
and Hollanders, who are preferred for the service 
by the company. They were of slight make, and 
little calculated, from their appearance, to en- 
counter the hardships of such a life ; but I was 
told they soon become hardened, and return 
strong, athletic men. The employment is, how- 
ever, beset with danger, from the hostile dispo- 
sitions of the various tribes of Indians in the 
western wilds, who view their intrusion with 
vindictive feelings, and seize every opportunity 
of attacking and annihilating small parties, 
notwithstanding their professions of friendship. 
Not long after my arrival, a party of trappers 
arrived from the Upper Missouri in two boats, 
which were loaded with buffalo and other furs. 
The stalwart look of these hardy mountaineers 
proved the hardening effect of their mode of 
life. They were brawny fellows of a ruddy 
brown complexion, of the true Indian hue, and 
habited in skins. These men, I ascertained, had 
been in the mountains for four or five years, 
during which time they had subsisted entirely 
on Buffalo and other meat, bread not being used 
or cared for. Their healthy look under such 
circumstances completely shook my faith in the 
Brahminical vegetarian theory, and goes far, I 
think, to prove that man was intended by his 
Maker to be a carnivorous animal. 



84 A FATAL FRAY. 

Just before the steamer approached the city, 
a circumstance occurred on board that filled me 
and my fellow-passengers with horror. We were 
taking breakfast in the cabin, congratulating 
each other on the near termination of our tedious 
passage, when a sudden shriek, followed by 
shouts from the deck-hands of the vessel, dis- 
turbed our meal. Hastening in great pertur- 
bation to the deck, we soon discovered the cause 
of the disturbance. One of the white waiters 
was lying on the deck, with a frightful gash in 
his side, from which the blood was fast oozing. 
Our first care was to attend to the sufferer, and 
a surgeon being fortunately amongst the passen- 
gers, the hemorrhage was soon abated, but the 
wound was pronounced to be of a fatal character. 
The poor fellow, who was a lad of about eighteen 
years of age, moaned piteously. Every attention 
that skill and kindness could suggest was paid 
to him. He was immediately carried to a state- 
room in the cabin, where he remained in great 
agony until the vessel was moored alongside the 
levee, when he was carefully removed on a litter 
to a hospital on shore. The perpetrator of the 
savage act proved to be a negro, filling the office 
of assistant cook. The passengers were very 
clamorous, and would, without doubt, have 
hanged the culprit immediately, had it not been 
for the interference of the captain, who, after 



HOW JUSTICE IS DEFEATED. 85 

a curt examination, had him pinioned and taken 
below. From the version given of the affair by 
the negroes who witnessed it (but which was 
contradicted by two white men Avho were on the 
spot), I was inclined to think the crime was 
committed under feelings of great provocation, 
the negro, as is commonly the case on board 
steam-boats, having been for a long time brow- 
beaten by the victim of the sad catastrophe, and 
subjected to very insolent and overbearing treat- 
ment at his hands. The culprit, who was a very 
sullen, stolid-looking, full-bred negro, refused to 
answer the questions put to him on the subject, 
and certainly manifested a careless indifference 
to consequences that was not in his favour; his 
fierce scowl denoting great ferocity, in all pro- 
bability induced by long ill-treatment. As soon 
as convenience allowed, some officers from the 
shore came on board and secured the prisoner, 
who was conveyed by them to the city gaol, to 
await the investigation of the outrage by the 
civic authorities and the result of the injury 
committed. The victim of revenge died a few 
days after the occurrence in excruciating agony. 
It will scarcely be believed that the perpetrator 
of the deed, after a short confinement, was 
spirited away up the country, no doubt at the 
connivance of the authorities, and sold ! 

Thus, justice is often defeated, from pecuniary 



86 THE ABORIGINES. 

considerations in the Slave States of America, 
where, if a slave commits even the heinous crime 
of murder, the ordinary course of the law is in- 
terfered with to save the owner from loss. This 
of itself is sufficient to stamp for ever as infamous 
the social cancer of slavery, and brands as ridi- 
culous, the boasted regard for justice, so prag- 
matically urged in the southern states of the 
American continent. 

A mile or two from St. Louis, on the Carondelet 
road, are situated spacious infantry barracks, 
named after Jefferson, one of the former pre- 
sidents of the Union, where troops are stationed 
in readiness to act against the various tribes of 
Indians in the Upper Missouri country, who 
sometimes show a disposition to be hostile. A 
reserve of troops is more particularly needful 
for the protection of the inhabitants ; for, either 
from mismanagement or an aggressive spirit, the 
Government is continually embroiled with the 
aboriginal tribes in harassing and expensive war- 
fare. This state of things acts as a perpetual 
blister, and has engendered a rancorous enmity 
between the Indians and their white neighbours, 
to the great detriment of peaceful agricultural 
pursuits by the latter, and the periodical per- 
plexity of the Chancellor of the American Ex- 
chequer ; whereas, a conciliating policy would 
not only keep the tribes in close friendship, but 



A FRIEND. 87 

secure their services as valuable allies in case of 
emergency — a point that may possibly suggest 
itself eventually to the executive, if the rampant 
spirit of aggrandisement now abroad continues 
to govern the public mind in America. 

Soon after landing, I was accosted by a middle- 
aged gentlemanly man, on the subject of the 
outrage on board the boat, and as he appeared 
to have less of that swaggering air about him 
than most men in the south possess, I entered 
freely into conversation with him, and in a very 
short time our interchange of sentiments created 
a mutual partiality, that led to his inviting me to 
pass the following evening at his house, a result 
I rather wished for, as he manifested a disposition 
to inform me fully on several questions I put to 
him relative to the state I was now in and my 
future movements ; moreover, he seemed some- 
what attached to the English, or rather was not 
strong in his prejudices against them. 

I accordingly repaired to his residence at the 
time appointed. This was situated in one of the 
lateral streets of the city leading to the outskirts, 
and, although not large, was furnished with great 
taste and elegance. His lady, who was, I think, 
from Illinois, made herself very agreeable, her 
kind attentions tending to confirm the impression 
I already entertained of her countrywomen ; they 
had no children, and the husband was engaged 



88 SCENES IN THE AMERICAN WAR. 

in some way with the Fur Company established 
St. Louis. I was entertained with great hos- 
pitality ; my kind host materially assisting me 
by information, &c. in my intention to pursue 
my route south. 

He was the son of a New Englander, or native 
of one of the eastern states ; his father having 
fought at Bunker's Hill, and otherwise taken an 
active part in the struggle for independence, be- 
tween the years 1776 and 1785. This made it 
the more extraordinary that he should treat an 
Englishman with the courtesy he showed to me, 
especially as under such circumstances a bias is 
in general handed down from father to son, 
which operates prejudicially to my countrymen. 

After putting a variety of questions, as to the 
" old country " as he termed Great Britain, on 
which I readily satisfied his curiosity, he entered 
into a detail of some of the stirring events relating 
to the period of his father's career in arms against 
the British ; some of these were of a thrilling 
character, and strongly depicted the miseries of 
war, presenting a lamentable picture of the de- 
basing influence of sanguinary struggles on the 
human mind. The barbarous mode of harassing 
the British troops, by picking ofi° stragglers, 
which the lower orders of Americans pursued, 
in most instances for the sake of the wretched 
clothing and accoutrements of the victims, the 



A SOLDTEK OFF HIS GUARD. 89 

former being dyed of a dark colour, and sold for 
a dollar per set (as lie called the military suit), 
to the American citizen-soldiers, fairly made my 
blood creep ; one instance in particular filled me 
with horror, for it was a cold-blooded murder of 
the deepest dye. I must, however, do the narrator 
the justice to say that he viewed the atrocity in 
the same light as I did. 

The occurrence I am about to relate, took place 
somewhere on the banks of the Hudson, below 
West Point, where a force of British troops were 
encamped or pursuing their operations under the 
protection of some vessels of war lying in the 
stream. He mentioned the exact spot where it 
occurred, but I have forgotten it. It appeared 
that this force was harassed and beset by parties 
of citizens, who, by pursuing a guerilla system 
of warfare, surprising small parties, and firing 
entirely in ambush, made great havoc amongst 
the rank and file of the invaders, almost every 
straggler falling a victim. One evening, during 
this state of things, two of the citizens, whilst 
prowling in a coppice, within a few miles of the 
camp, on the look-out, came suddenly upon an 
infantry soldier, who was off his guard at the 
moment, and whose firelock was resting against a 
tree ; the foremost of the Americans darted for- 
ward and seized the weapon, while the second 
captured the wretched soldier. Under ordinary 



90 A CAPTIVE SOLDIER SHOT. 

circumstances, and in more honourable hands, 
the man would have been conveyed as a prisoner 
of war to the American camp, but plunder 
being their object, this would not answer the 
purpose of the miscreants, the most resolute 
of whom ordered the captive (who was a lad of 
seventeen or eighteen), to take off his jacket. 
Knowing this was a preliminary step to his being 
shot, he fell on his knees and implored mercy. 
His captors were, however, inexorable, and he 
began to cry bitterly, and besought them to 
spare his life ; these manifestations had, however, 
no effect on his deadly foes, who now threatened 
to fell him with the butt end of a fusee if he did 
not comply : this had the effect, and the poor 
captive reluctantly pulled off the jacket and 
threw it on the ground ; this was immediately 
picked up by one of the party, to avoid its being 
stained with the life-blood of the victim. With- 
drawing now a few paces, one of the Americans 
took a deliberate aim ; the young soldier instantly 
turned to run, but as he wheeled round for the 
purpose (for his enemies were facing him), a ball 
entered his left side, just under the armpit, and 
springing frantically several feet into the air, he 
fell dead to the ground. He was then stripped, 
and left on the spot, 

This horrid relation I should have thought, for 
the credit of his country, an American would 



A SUPERSTITION. 91 

have kept secret ; but as I before observed, lie 
was by no means disposed to take the part of 
these so-called patriots, although he stated that 
many atrocities were committed by the British, 
some of which he related, and which were, he 
said, never recorded ; these, I fear, if exposed, 
would not much redound to their credit with the 
present generation. 

At first I could not understand why the soldier 
was ordered before being shot to pull his jacket 
off ; this he explained by saying, that a rent in 
the garment made by the ball of a fusee, would 
have lessened its value ; and further, that the 
American soldiers were averse, from superstitious 
fear at the time, to wearing any article of dress 
in which an enemy had yielded his breath ; not- 
withstanding which repugnance, the American 
soldiers not long after dismissed the objection, 
from the extreme scantiness of the clothing 
afforded them. 

On my intimating the abhorrence I felt 
at the relation, my entertainer informed rne 
that it was impossible at the time to prevent such 
occurrences, the annihilation of the invaders was 
the prirnum mobile of all Americans, and many 
citizens harassed the enemy on their own ac- 
count, the principle being the same on which 
European vessels bearing letters of marque, are 
suffered to waylay and seize, for the purpose of 



92 • A SLAVE-HOLDING MAJOR. 

private gain, the merchant vessels belonging to 
the country with which they are at war. Such 
atrocities, as he remarked, however horrifying in 
times of peace, are of every-day occurrence be- 
tween contending armies. 
# Amongst those I had occasion to call on at 

St. Louis, was a Major . He had formerly 

been engaged in Indian warfare, and, having 
received a wound from a rifle-ball, that incapa- 
citated him for active military duty, he was 
living as a retired citizen — his wife's jointure, 
and an allowance from Government, allowing 
him to keep up a tolerably good establishment. 
He was the owner of several slaves, and, amongst 
the rest, a young woman who was employed as 
nursemaid in the family. The first time I called 
at his residence, I thought him a man of superior 
manners and education, and was much pleased 
with the visit, which was concluded with a pro- 
mise to renew it on a future day. When, how- 
ever, I repeated my visit soon after, I found him 
alone in his study, and his constrained manner 
soon led me to perceive that something unusual 
perturbed his mind. The cause was soon after 
explained, for, the negress, before mentioned, 
coming into the room on some trifling errand, 
to my surprise accosted him rather freely. Her 
master suddenly broke out in a paroxysm of 
rage, swore at her awfully, and accused her in 



DRAWING BLOOD FROM A SLAVE. 93 

a ruffianly way of being insolent to her mistress. 
Then, violently ringing a bell which stood on the 
table, he summoned a negro lad into the room, 
and at once despatched him to a neighbour's 
house to borrow a new raw-hide whip, threaten- 
ing all the while to flay her alive. In vain the 
terrified creature pleaded innocence ; he would 
take no excuse, and, although I begged earnestly 
for him to pass over the offence, and the poor 
slave fell on her knees in the greatest terror, he 
vowed vengeance with dreadful imprecations. At 
last the whip came, and, disregarding alike the 
presence of a stranger, and the entreaties of a 
woman, he began the flagellation with murderous 
earnest. My interference only added to his un- 
governable rage. The raw-hide was new, and the 
major being a strong, muscular man, every stroke 
told. The blood soon flowed from the back, neck, 
and breasts, of the poor victim, whose cries, as 
she writhed under the savage infliction, entered 
my soul They, however, made no impression on 
her brutal tormentor, who kept vociferating with 
all his energy to keep her quiet. It was with 
some difficulty I stood by and witnessed the 
assault, but I well knew my life would be in 
jeopardy if I attempted to interfere. I, however, 
screwed up my courage to stay, in the hope that 
some sense of shame might induce the fellow to 
hold his hand. This was, however, a delusive 



94 AN EVERY-DAY OCCURRENCE. 

hope, for he continued to lay on the whip until 
he was exhausted. 

The girl was now on the floor of the room, 
moaning piteously, and a stream of blood was 
flowing from her lacerated person, which soaked 
the matting that covered the floor. Her dress 
was hanging in tatters, and the blood trickling 
down her cheeks had a horrifying effect. As 
soon as the ruffian was tired, he bid the woman 
get down stairs and wash herself. The miserable 
creature arose with difficulty, and picking up her 
apron and turban, which were in different parts 
of the room, she hobbled out crying bitterly. 
As soon as she was gone, the major pointed to 
the blood, and said, " If we did not see that 
sometimes, there would be no living with the 
brutes f to which I replied in terms he could not 
misunderstand, and at once left the house, deter- 
mined never again to enter it — a resolution I 
religiously kept. I afterwards heard that this 
miserable creature was pregnant at the time, a 
circumstance that would have induced at least 
some regard to leniency in any man not utterly 
debased. 

Those who are acquainted with southern scenes 
will see nothing extraordinary in this recital, 
for they are every-day occurrences, and scarcely 
elicit a remark, unless the perpetrator should 
happen to be a slave-holding Wesleyan or Whit- 



THE DUTCH IN ST. LOUIS. 95 

fieldite, when, perhaps, he would be called to 
some account — his own version of the affair 
being of course admitted in limine. Many of 
the slaveholders are an incorrigibly degraded set 
of men. It is by no means uncommon for them 
to inflict chastisement on negresses with whom 
they are in habitual illicit intercourse, and I 
was credibly informed that this cruelty was often 
resorted to, to disabuse the mind of a deceived 
and injured wife who suspects unfair treatment. 
This attested fact, disgraceful as it is, can scarcely 
be wondered at in men who mercilessly subject 
defenceless women to the lash without a spark of 
human feeling, or compunction of conscience. It 
is little to the credit of United States senators 
that they have not at least made laws to protect 
women from the barbarous usage of flogging. One 
would imagine that men, who, perhaps, above all 
others in the world, pay homage to the sex, 
would have, established a distinction in this re- 
spect ; but I apprehend the truth to be, that 
they are so far influenced by their wives, who 
are notoriously jealous of their sable rivals, that 
they have succumbed to their sentiments and 1 
dictation. 

There are many Dutch in St. Louis, and along 
the levee you perceive boarding-houses and 
groceries kept for their accommodation. These 
men are generally great drinkers, and think as 



96 TARRING AND FEATHERING 

little of quaffing at a few draughts half-a-pint 
of whiskey, as an Englishman would the same 
quantity of malt liquor. They consume, also, 
vast quantities of claret. I have frequently seen 
a couple of these men at a cafe, drink five or six 
bottles without betraying any ill effects. It must, 
however, be remembered that claret is not so 
potent as the heavier wines. 

A few days after my arrival, while standing in 
the vestibule of my hotel, my attention was drawn 
to a loud altercation going on at the bar, and as 
it was evident, from the manner of the parties, 
that some public question was being discussed, 
I listened, and ascertained that an obnoxious 
citizen had been seized for perpetrating a petty 
act of revenge on a neighbour by damaging his 
horse, and was that day to be publicly tarred, 
feathered, and escorted out of the city, as they 
said, bag and baggage. Having ascertained the 
spot selected for the scene, I determined to witness 
it. Accordingly, at noon, the appointed hour, 
I repaired to an open spot of building-land on 
the Carondelet side of the city. Here I found 
assembled a motley assemblage of citizens, negroes, 
steamboat-hands, and the general riff-raff of the 
place. Although the crowd was not so great, the 
meeting strongly reminded me of those scenes of 
infamy and disgrace in England — public execu- 
tions ; the conduct of the assembled throng on 



AN OBNOXIOUS CITIZEN. 97 

this occasion being the more decorous of the two. 
Precisely at twelve, the mob made a rush towards 
one corner of the open space, from which direc- 
tion I saw the culprit advancing, in charge of 
thirty or forty well-dressed people (the committee 
appointed for the occasion being among the num- 
ber). He was a stout man, and described to me 
as a great bully ; but now he looked completely 
crest-fallen. As the party came on, he was hissed 
by the mob, who, however, kept at a good distance 
from his guard. A man, with a large tin can of 
smoking pitch, a brush of the kind used in apply- 
ing the same, and a pillow of feathers under his 
arm, followed immediately behind the prisoner, 
vociferating loudly. Arrived at the spot, the 
poor wretch was placed on a stool, and a citizen, 
who had taken a very prominent part in front of 
the procession, and who, I was told, was the chief 
cause of this outrage, stepped in front of him, 
and pulling out a sheet of paper, read a lecture 
on the enormity of his crime, which wound up 
with the sentence about to be enforced. When 
this was finished, the man who carried the tar- 
vessel stepped up, and began, with a scissors, to 
cut off the culprit's hair, which he did most 
effectually, flinging portions amongst the crowd, 
who scrambled after them. As soon as this was 
finished, and the man was stripped to the waist, 
the brush was dipped into the pitch, and the 

H 



98 AMERICAN LYNC1I-LAW. 

upper part of his person lathered therewith. Not 
a word escaped him, but the individual who had 
taken so prominent a part in the punishment, 
kept giving directions to the operator to put it 
on thick. Even his eyes and ears were not spared. 
As soon as this part of the operation was com- 
plete, the bag of feathers was ripped open by 
a by-stander, and the contents stuck thickly on 
the parts besmeared with tar, amidst the deafen- 
ing cheers of the spectators, who were by this 
time in such frantic excitement that I began to 
fear a tragedy would ensue, especially as many 
of them shouted, " Now hang the varmint ! hang 
him!" This proposal was eagerly seconded by 
the mob. This was, however, resolutely overruled 
by his keepers. The appearance presented by the 
victim, in this peculiarly American dress, was 
ludicrous in the extreme, and looked very com- 
fortable. As soon as this part of the exhibition 
was finished, a man, with a small drum, followed 
by the mob, with yells and execrations drove the 
culprit before them at a run. The poor wretch 
ran like a deer from his pursuers, who followed 
at his heels, shouting frantically, until he reached 
the brink of the river, where a boat was waiting 
to take him off. He dashed into it, and was 
at once rowed into the middle of the stream, out 
of reach, of his tormentors, who, I quite believe, 
would have administered more severe lynch-law 



A SLAVE-VENDUE. 99 

if they could have got hold of him, for their 
passions were wrought up to the highest pitch 
of excitement. One feature in the scene I could 
not help remarking — the negroes all appeared in 
high glee, and many of them actually danced 
with joy. I did not wonder at this, for the 
negroes always seemed to exult if a white man 
was in disgrace ; which, after all, is no more than 
might be expected from a class of men tyrannized 
over as the coloured people are there, and is one 
of the results of the oppressive system that exacts 
everything that human labour can furnish, with- 
out remuneration, and without (in by far the 
greater number of instances) any approach to 
sympathy or grateful feeling. This alone, with- 
out taking into consideration the outrages in- 
flicted on the race by their cruel oppressors, 
supplies a sufficient cause for such a tendency, 
if every other were wanting. 

Passing through the principal street the day 
before I left St. Louis, an assembly of men, chiefly 
overseers and negro dealers, who stood at the 
entrance of a large store, attracted my attention. 
Large placards, with a description of various lots 
of negroes to be submitted to public competition, 
soon told me I should now be able to gratify my 
curiosity by witnessing a Missouri slave-vendue. 
A man with a bell, which he rang most energeti- 
cally at the door, shortly after summoned the 



100 A USED-UP LOT OF HUMAN GOODS. 

company, the auction being about to commence. 
On a table inside, a negress, of a little over 
middle age, was standing, vacantly gazing with 
grief-worn countenance on the crowd that now 
thronged to the table. On the floor stood two 
children, of about the ages of ten and thirteen 
respectively. The auctioneer, with the custom- 
ary volubility of such men in America, began by 
stating, that the lots now to be offered were the 
remnants of a preceding sale, which he gratui- 
tously observed had been a most satisfactory one, 
and after dilating with some energy on the good 
qualities of the woman before us, whose face 
brightened up a little on hearing such a flattering 
account of her good qualities, he earnestly re- 
quested a bidding. The poor creature was 
evidently in ill-health. After the most revolting 
questions had been put to her, and her person 
examined by the competitors with disgraceful 
familiarity, she was pronounced all but worthless, 
" used up/' as one of the company observed, and 
was, after much demur on the part of the auc- 
tioneer, knocked down for two hundred dollars ; 
this sum being, as he remarked, but the moiety 
of what she ought to have realized. She was then 
roughly told to get off the table, and take her 
stand near it, at a place pointed out by her pur- 
chaser, who was a rollicking-looking, big-whiskered 
fellow, with an immense Leghorn hat, the brim of 



SOLD AND SEPARATED. 101 

which was lined with black, and having a broad 
black ribbon round the crown. As the poor woman 
got down, she cast a furtive glance at her chil- 
dren, who, although the auctioneer certainly tried 
to prevent it, were sold to two individuals, neither 
of whom was the purchaser of the parent. The 
poor woman looked about in great despair while 
the bidding was going on. It was in vain I 
sought one sympathizing look in that company ; 
but how could it be expected, when it consisted 
of men long inured to such heartless scenes — men 
whose hearts were case-hardened by the impious 
traffic they were now engaged in. I was, how- 
ever, pleased to hear afterwards that the pur- 
chasers all resided in St. Louis, and that the 
woman would often see her children — poor amends 
it is true for a cruel separation, but more satisfac- 
tory than such cases generally are. 



102 STUCK FAST. 



CHAPTER IV. 



" Where Will-o'-the-wisps and glow-worms shine, 

In bulrush and in brake ; 
Where waving mosses shroud the pine, 
And the cedar grows, and the poisonous vine 

Is spotted like the snake." — Longfellow. 

From St. Louis, on the Missouri river, I took 
passage to New Orleans, in one of those mag- 
nificent steamers that crowd the inland waters 
of the American continent, and which, sump- 
tuously furnished as they are, have not inaptly 
been termed " floating palaces/' We had a 
prosperous passage as far as the junction of the 
Ohio with the Mississippi, where the boat struck 
the branches of a large tree, that had been 
washed into the bed of the stream, and was there 
stuck fast, root downwards. This formidable 
chevaux-de-frise (or snag, as it was termed by the 



THE MISSISSIPPI AND THE ILLINOIS. 103 

captain) fortunately did not do much damage to 
the vessel, although at first an alarm was raised 
that she was sinking, and much confusion ensued 
This apprehension was, however, soon dissipated 
by the report of the carpenter, whose account of 
the damage was so far favourable, that after ex- 
trication by backing the vessel, and a few tempo- 
rary repairs, she was again got under headway. 

The pellucid waters of the Ohio, as they enter 
the turbid rushing current of the Mississippi, 
which is swollen by the Illinois and other tribu- 
taries, has a remarkable eifect, the clear current 
of the former river refusing, for a considerable 
distance, to mingle with the murky stream of the 
latter, and forming a visible blue channel in its 
centre — a phenomenon I thought allegorical of 
the slave-stained condition of the one state, and 
the free soil of the other ; for while Ohio is free 
from the curse of slavery, the banks of the 
Mississippi have for centuries been deep dyed in 
the life's blood of the oppressed African. 

Our vessel was borne on the rushing waters 
with great impetuosity, the maddening current 
of the Mississippi seeming to carry everything 
before it. As we proceeded we constantly saw 
trees topple over into the river, the banks of 
which are continually widening, and which in 
many parts has the appearance of a lake after a 
storm, impregnated with debris. The trees, thus 



10-1 COMPULSORY REMOVAL OF INDIANS. 

washed into the bed of the river, sink root 
downwards and make the navigation perilous, 
as I have before described. We met numerous 
steamers coming up the stream, one of them 
having a freight of Indians from Florida, re- 
moving to the western frontier, under the sur- 
veillance of U. S. soldiery and government agents. 
The compulsory removal of Indians, from one 
remote state to another, whenever new territory 
is needed, forms a disgraceful feature in internal 
American policy. Transported to new hunting 
grounds, the poor Indians are brought into con- 
tact with other tribes, when feuds arise from 
feelings of jealousy, and the new-comers are 
often annihilated in a few years. Many tribes 
have thus become totally extinct, and the remain- 
der are rapidly becoming so. As the steamer 
passed us with her freight of red men they set up 
a loud yell, which reverberated through the 
forests on the river-shores. It sounded to me 
very much like defiance, and probably was, for 
they execrate the white men as hereditary 
enemies, and feel deeply the wrongs inflicted on 
their people. 

All the steamers we met were more or less 
crowded with passengers, the visages of many of 
whom bore traces of fever and ague, and who 
were, doubtless, removing to a healthier climate. 
This insidious disease often terminates fatally in 



THE BANKS OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 105 

the cities and districts skirting the swamps of 
Louisiana, and, to avoid its baneful effects, the 
more affluent people migrate south-west or north 
when the sickly season sets in. The yellow fever 
is also very fatal in such situations, and annually 
claims numbers of victims. 

We had by this time reached that latitude 
where perpetual summer reigns. The banks of 
the mighty Mississippi, which has for ages rolled 
on in increasing grandeur, present to the eye a 
wilderness of sombre scenery, indescribably wild 
and romantic. The bays, formed by the cur- 
rent, are choked with palmetto and other trees, 
and teem with alligators, water-snakes, and fresh- 
water turtle, the former basking in the sun in 
conscious security. Overhead, pelicans, paro- 
quets, and numberless other 

" Strange bright birds on their starry wings, 
Bear the rich hues of all glorious things ; " 

while the gorgeous magnolia, in luxuriant bloom, 
and a thousand other evergreens, on shore, vie 
with voluptuous aquatic flowers to bewilder 
and delight the astonished traveller, accustomed 
hitherto only to the more unassuming produc- 
tions of the sober north. Everything here was 
new, strange, and solemn. The gigantic trees, 
encircled by enormous vines, and heavily shrouded 
in grey funereal moss, mournfully waving in the 



106 GANGS OF NEGROES AT WORK. 

breeze — the doleful night-cry of the death-bird 
and the whip-poor-will — the distant bugle of the 
advancing boats — the moan of the turbid current 
beneath — the silent and queenly moon above, ap- 
pearing nearer, larger, and brighter than in our 
cooler latitudes — the sultry atmosphere — and most 
of all, perhaps, the sense of the near vicinity of 
death in this infected region — oppressed my 
spirit with an ominous feeling of solemnity and 
awe. 

As we passed the plantations which here and 
there varied the scene, gangs of negroes could 
be seen at labour — their sturdy overseers, of 
ruffianly mien, prowling sulkily about, watching 
every motion of the bondsmen, whip in hand ; 
which weapon they applied with the most wanton 
freedom, as if the poor sufferers were as destitute 
of physical sensation, as they themselves w T ere of 
moral or humane feeling. Armed with a huge 
bowie-knife and pistols, these embruted creatures 
were very cut-throats in appearance ; and it is 
well known there, that their conduct in general 
towards those they lord over, justifies the appel- 
lation I have given them. 

The steamer halted at intervals to take in 
wood, which is invariably used, instead of coal 
as in England This is piled in parrallelograms 
on the banks — the logs being split longitudinally. 
This forms a source of good profit, and is, in 



GIBBETS. ] 07 

many instances, the chief maintenance of the 
squalid settlers of these plague-stricken and un- 
wholesome places. After the measurement of 
the pile by the mate or captain, the deck- 
passengers and boat-hands stow it away in the 
vicinity of the furnaces — it being part of the 
terms of passage, that the lower order of pas- 
sengers shall assist in the operation. This is 
much disliked by the latter, and many of the 
Germans of this class on board, endeavoured to 
escape the laborious duty by hiding amongst the 
packages on deck. A general search was, how- 
ever, instituted by the officers of the vessel, just 
before it stopped at a wooding-station — and the 
skulkers were brought out, amidst the clamorous 
jeers of their fellows. The class of passengers I 
have just referred to, consisted chiefly of Germans 
and Irish, who, although there is no professed 
distinction, bargain for a deck-passage, the charge 
being better suited to their means. Amongst the 
objects that arrested my attention, as our vessel 
floated majestically down the turbid current, were 
gibbets standing on the banks, depending from 
several of which were short chains, doubtless 
required occasionally in carrying out this kind 
of discipline. As the horrifying objects occurred 
at intervals of a few miles, I at first imagined 
they were cranes used to lower bales of cotton 
into the holds of vessels, and addressing a pas- 



108 AX AMERICAN REMEDY 

senger whose physiognomy prepossessed me in 
his favour, and who had several times shown a 
disposition to impart the knowledge he possessed 
concerning the objects around, he soon con- 
vinced me of my mistake, adding, that such 
engines were as necessary to the proper disci- 
pline of the negroes in that latitude as the over- 
seer himself. He then proceeded to detail several 
instances of fugitive negroes being dragged in 
capture to the foot of the gallows, where, with 
halter-encircled necks, they were made not only 
to acknowledge the error committed and expose 
accessories, but " pumped dry/' as he facetiously 
termed it, as to the intended flight of other 
negroes on the estate. Sometimes, he said, it 
was necessary to suspend the culprit for a 
moment or so, to intimidate, but this was only 
in cases where the victim (he used the word 
rascal) was inclined to be sullen, and refused 
readily to give the required information. I in- 
quired whether it ever occurred that actual 
execution took place ; to this my new acquaint- 
ance replied, "Wall, yes, where the nigger had 
dar'd to strike a white man:" but that it was 
usual to go to a magistrate first, in such cases. 
The appearance of these gibbets, after the in- 
formation I had received respecting them from 
my slaveholding acquaintance, made my flesh 
creep as we steamed onwards, the more so as, 



FOR REFRACTORY NEGROES. 109 

in many of the grounds skirting the river, where 
these sombre murky-looking objects presented 
themselves to the gaze of the traveller, gangs of 
negroes were at work, looking up complacently 
for a moment as the vessel glided by. I was 
subsequently told by a gentleman who had been 
long resident in the state of Louisiana, that no 
punishment so effectually strikes with terror 
the negro mind, as that of hanging, the very 
threat being sufficient to subdue (in general) the 
most hardened offenders. This I do not wonder 
at, for perhaps there are few field-hands living in 
the south but have, at some time or other, wit- 
nessed the barbarities used at a negro execution, 
sudden death by pistol or bowie knife being far 
preferable to the brutal sneers and indignities 
heaped upon the victim by the cowardly assassins 
who superintend such operations. 

The monotony of the scenes which had for a 
thousand miles rendered the passage irksome, 
began to break as we approached Natchez. This 
place takes its name from the Natch-i-toches, or 
Red River, which falls into the Mississippi, the 
abbreviation being a corruption of the original 
Indian name, which is as above stated. The 
town stands on a declivity or bluff, and is of 
considerable extent. I did not visit it, although 
the boat halted for a considerable time, to land 
letter-bags and passengers. I was informed by 



110 NATCHEZ AND NEW ORLEANS. 

a fellow-passenger of gentlemanly bearing, who 
resided in the vicinity, that it was a dissipated 
place, and gambling the chief occupation of its 
inhabitants. The locality has been remarkable 
for landslips, owing to the siliceous nature of the 
soil ; I saw traces of a fearful catastrophe of the 
kind which had, some time before, buried or 
destroyed many of the houses and their occu- 
pants, the enormous mass having also sunk 
several steam-boats and other vessels which were 
moored at the foot of the bluff under the town. 

After leaving Natchez, we steamed away with 
renewed vigour towards that centre of slavery 
and dissipation, New Orleans, and were in due 
course moored to the levee, which extends the 
whole river-length of the city, and is about 
a mile in extent. The first news I heard, and 
which alarmed me not a little, was that the 
yellow fever was at this time raging in the city. 
New Orleans is just fifty-four miles from the 
mouth of the Mississippi, and being built at the 
time of the Orleans Regency, contains many 
ancient structures. Its inhabitants, even to 
this day, are to a great extent either French or 
of Gaelic origin. It lies exceedingly flat, which 
causes the locality to be unhealthy and illsuited 
to European constitutions ; the soil is, however, 
fertile and rich ; this is, perhaps, to be accounted 
for by the constant irrigation it undergoes from 



GANGS OF CAPTURED FUGITIVES. 1 J 1 

the overflowing of the Mississippi, which, like 
another Nile, periodically submerges the country 
around its banks. The town is situated on the 
east side of the river. 

The vast quantity of shipping of all classes in 
the harbour is a very striking feature in this 
extensive and wealthy city. The bad eminence 
to which New T Orleans has attained is painful to 
contemplate. Its wealth is purchased by the 
blood and tears of thousands of slaves, who are 
daily exposed like cattle in its markets ; and 
this fact operates on the mind of an Englishman 
to the prejudice of its inhabitants. I was myself 
filled with disgust towards the whites, as well as 
pity towards the blacks, on beholding, imme- 
diately on our arrival, a gang of forty or fifty 
negroes, of both sexes, and nearly all ages, work- 
ing in shackles on the wharf. These, I was in- 
formed, were principally captured fugitives ; they 
looked haggard and care-worn, and as they 
toiled with their barrows with uncovered heads, 
under a burning sun, they were mercilessly 
lashed with a heavy slave-whip, by a tall, athletic 
negro, who acted as overseer, and who, with 
refined cruelty, dispensed the punishment alike 
on stout men, slender youths, and thin atten- 
uated females. Our arrival having attracted 
the notice of the gang, and induced a momentary 
halt in their work, the unfeeling wretch com- 



112 ANTI-ABOLITION SPIES. 

menced a furious onslaught with the whip, each 
crack of which, followed, as it was, by the groans 
or cries of the sufferer, roused the indignant 
feelings of the passengers, many of whom were 
from the free states, and who simultaneously 
raised a yell of execration which made the 
welkin resound, and caused the cruel driver to 
stand aghast. This demonstration drew a re- 
monstrance from the captain, who represented to 
the passengers the danger of such conduct, and 
concluded by observing that if it was repeated, 
it would probably arouse the indignation of the 
citizens, who were very bigoted. He should be 
sorry, he added, to be obliged to put the vessel 
about again, a proceeding that might be neces- 
sary for the safety of all on board, unless they 
were more cautious. Some of the jmssengers 
seemed disposed to dispute this argument, but 
they were overruled by~ the majority, who, better 
acquainted with southern usages, prejudices, and 
barbarities, thought that discretion under the 
circumstances would be the better part of valour. 
I afterwards found that the captain's view was 
a strictly correct one, for so jealous are the citi- 
zens of men entertaining hostility to the pro- 
slavery cause, that spies are often sent on board 
newly-arrived boats, to ascertain if missionaries 
are amongst the passengers. These spies, with 
Jesuitical art, introduce themselves by making 



THE BLACK POPULATION. 113 

apparently casual inquiries on leading topics of 
those they suspect, and if their end is subserved, 
basely betray them, or, what is more usual, 
keep them under strict surveillance, with a view 
to their being detected in disseminating abolition 
doctrines amongst the slaves, when they are 
immediately made amenable to the laws, and are 
fined or imprisoned. 

On landing, I hired a sorry conveyance, driven 
by a Creole and drawn by a mule, and had my 
luggage taken to a house in the suburbs, where I 
had been recommended to take up my residence 
during my stay, which, owing to the presence 
of the yellow fever, that daily carried off num- 
bers of victims, I had determined, contrary to 
my original intention, should be short. 

The crowds of people on the levee, attracted 
by the constant arrival of steam-boats, had a 
motley appearance ; many of these were rough- 
looking fellows, fit for any occupation, most of 
them being armed with bowie knives, the silver 
hilts of which could often be seen peering suspi- 
ciously from under the waistcoat, in the inner 
lining of which a case or scabbard of leather is 
sewn for the reception of the weapon. The vast 
proportion of blacks in the streets soon struck me. 
I should think they were five to one of the white 
population. These, for the most part, were in 
wretched plight ; many of them begged of the 



114 THE CALABOOSE. 

passers-by, which practice I found afterwards to 
be very general, especially in the suburbs of the 
city. 

Amongst the passengers on our boat, was a per- 
son, apparently of the better class, who was met 
at the levee by two black servants with a carriage. 
I noticed particularly, that, although the negroes 
touched their hats, and inquired how he was (by 
wdiich I concluded he had been absent for some 
time), he did not deign to answer their inquiries. 
From their timidity, it w-as evident that he was 
an overbearing man, and the imperial haughti- 
ness manifested in giving them his orders, 
confirmed this impression. This individual was 
one of those who condemned the demonstration 
I have noticed, when the boat first approached 
the levee. 

After a day's rest at my boarding-house, I 
w T alked through the city, and afterwards visited 
the calaboose, which in New Orleans is a mart 
for produce, as well as a place of detention 
and punishment for slaves. Here those owners 
who are averse to correcting their slaves in a 
rigorous manner at home, send them to be flogged. 
The brutal way in which this is done at the 
calaboose, strikes terror into the negro mind, and 
the threat is often sufficient to tame the most 
incorrigible. Instances, I was told, have often 
occurred of negroes expiring under the severity 



CHARACTER OF NEW ORLEANS. 115 

of the discipline here ; but it was remarked 
that the pecuniary loss attendant on such casual- 
ties made the keepers careful not to exceed the 
physical endurance of the sufferer, and that they 
were so well acquainted with negro constitutions 
that it was a rare exception for death to ensue. 
The punishment, however, almost always re- 
sulted in the victim being invalided and unfitted 
for exertion for a considerable time. 

I believe New Orleans to be as vile a place as 
any under the sun : a perfect Ghetto or cursed 
place ; in fact, it is the rendezvous of renegades 
of all nations, and hordes of negro traders and 
planters are to be seen flocking round the hotels. 
These are extensive patrons of the gambling- 
houses ; and the faro, rouge-et-noir, roulette, and 
other establishments, fitted up with gorgeous 
saloons, are generally crowded with them. As 
you pass, you may observe the frequenters of such 
places in dozens, deeply engaged in play, while 
the teller of the establishment sits at a table 
with a huge heap of Spanish doubloons or Mexi- 
can mill dollars before him, which he adds to 
or takes from with the tact of a banker's clerk, 
as the chances of luck may arise. Violence and 
bloodshed have been indigenous to this city from 
time immemorial, and feuds are instantly settled 
by an appeal to the bowie knife, or ever-ready 
revolver. Highway robberies are very frequent, 



116 CLIMATE. 

and I was told it was more than your life was 
worth to be out after dark, in certain localities, 
unless armed and on your guard. The police 
authorities are, nevertheless, vigilant, and the 
magistrates severe, so that many desperadoes are 
brought to justice. 

The suburbs of New Orleans lie low, and the 
swampy soil emits a poisonous miasma. This is, 
without doubt, the cause of virulent epidemics 
that visit the city annually with direful effect. 
Thousands fly to the northern states, to escape 
the contagion ; but there are many who, for want 
of means, are obliged to risk a continued resi- 
dence at such periods, and it is amongst those 
that the yellow fever, the ague, or the flux, 
plays dreadful havoc. It is the custom for the 
small store-keepers, as well as the more affluent 
merchants, to confide their affairs at such seasons 
to others, and I have frequently seen advertise- 
ments in the Nevj Orleans Picayune, and other 
papers, offering a gratuity to persons to under- 
take the charge in their absence. 

The heat, although the summer -was not far 
advanced, was excessive, and the thousands of 
mosquitoes that filled the air, especially after a 
fall of rain, when they seemed to burst into life 
in myriads spontaneously, kept up an increasing 
annoyance. At night this was ten-fold, for not- 
withstanding the gauze awnings, or bars, as they 



QUADROON FEMALE SLAVES. 117 

are called, which completely enveloped the bed- 
stead, to the floor of the room, they found 
admittance with pertinacious audacity, and kept 
up a buzzing and humming about my ears that 
almost entirely deprived me of rest. This un- 
ceasing nuisance in the hot season, makes it 
difficult to keep one's equanimity of temper, and 
has, probably, much to do with that extreme iras- 
cibility shown by the southern inhabitants of 
the American continent. 

The appearance and situation of h unclreds o 
quadroon females in this city, soon attracted my 
attention, and deserve notice. I saw numbers 
of them not only at the bazaars or shops making 
purchases, but riding in splendid carriages through 
the streets. So prodigal are these poor deluded 
creatures of their money, that, although slaves 
and liable to immediate sale at the caprice of 
their keepers, they have often been known to 
spend in one afternoon 200 dollars in a shopping 
excursion. Endowed with natural talents, they 
are readily instructed in every accomplishment, 
requisite to constitute them charming companions. 
Often as a carriage dashes by, the pedestrian is 
able to catch a glimpse of some jewelled and 
turbaned sultana, of dazzling beauty, attended 
by her maid, who does not always possess a sine- 
cure, for the mistress is often haughty, proud, 
and petulant, very hard to please, and exacts 



118 PROFLIGACY AND HEARTLESSNESS. 

great deference from her inferiors. Many of 
them live in regal splendour, and everything that 
wealth and pampered luxury can bestow is theirs, 
as long as their personal charms remain ; but 
when their beauty has ceased to gratify the pas- 
sions of their masters, they are, in most instances, 
cast off, and frequently die in a condition which 
presents the greatest possible contrast to their 
former gay but not happy life. 

" Oh that they had earlier died, 
Sleeping calmly side by side, 
Where the tyrant's power is o'er, 
And the fetter galls no more." 

Many of such poor outcasts are to be found 
scattered all over the slave states, some employed 
as field hands, but in general they are selected 
as domestics, their former habits of luxury and 
ease rendering their constitutions too delicate 
for the exposure of ordinary field labour. It 
is not, however, as the reader will have observed, 
commiseration that saves them from that de- 
gradation. As soon as beauty begins to fade, 
which in southern climes it does prematurely, 
the unfeeling owners of these unfortunates suc- 
ceed in ridding themselves of what is now con- 
sidered a burden, by disposing of the individual 
to some heartless trader. This is done unknown 
to the victim, and the news, when it reaches her, 
drives her almost frantic : she at once seeks her 



ST. MARKS. 119 

perfidious paramour, and finds to her dismay, 
that he has been gone some days on a tour to 
the provinces, and is, perhaps, a thousand miles 
off. Tears and protestations avail her nothing, 
the trader is inexorable, she belongs to him by 
law, and go she must ; at length, having vainly 
expended her entreaties, she becomes calm, and 
submits in sullen apathy to her wretched fate. 
This is the ordinary history of such cases. 

Considering it unsafe to remain longer in this 
infected city, from the reports that the fever 
was gaining ground, I now made preparations 
for leaving New Orleans, and as I had made 
an engagement to manage the affairs of a gentle- 
man in Florida, during his, absence at Washing- 
ton, I determined to proceed thither with the 
least possible delay. In furtherance of this 
object I made inquiries for a conveyance by 
water to St. Marks, giving the preference to 
steam. In this object I was, however, disap- 
pointed, and was obliged to take a passage on 
board a brig, about to sail for that obscure port. 
The vessel was towed down to the balize or 
mouth of the Mississippi, in company with two 
others, by a departing steamer, which had on 
board the mail for Bermuda and St. George's 
Island. Arrived at the balize, whose banks for 
several miles are overflowed by the sea, I saw a 
small fleet of vessels, some outward and some 



120 CROSSING THE GULF OF MEXICO. 

inward bound. Amongst these was a United 
States ship of war, of great beauty, carrying 
heavy guns. A boat from this vessel, in charge 
of an officer, boarded us, and delivered to the 
captain a sealed packet, which I understood to 
be a dispatch, addressed to General Taylor, the 
officer in command of the troops operating 
against the Indians in Florida. 

The coast about the balize is low and swampy, 
and everywhere abounds in rush and cane brakes 
which give its sea-beach a desolate appearance. 
These morasses harbour thousands of alligators, 
whose roar had a singular effect as it rose above 
the breeze. Flocks of aquatic birds were to be 
seen on every side, the most numerous being the 
pelican, and a bird of the cotinga species, about 
the size of an English throstle, the plumage of 
which, being jet black and flamingo red, had a 
beautiful effect in the sunshine, as they flew or 
settled in thousands on the canes. 

Our passage across the Gulf of Mexico was a 
favourable one, but when within forty miles of 
our destination, the vessel struck on a hidden 
sand-bank. The fog was so dense, that the 
captain had been mistaken in his reckoning, 
and had taken a wrong course. For a con- 
siderable time we were in great jeopardy, and 
every attempt to get the ship again afloat was 
unavailing ; and, had not the weather been 



FOREBODINGS. 121 

moderate, there is little doubt but that she would 
have been lost, and our lives placed in great peril. 
After some hours' exertion, during which an an- 
chor was lost, and a quantity of iron thrown 
overboard, we had the satisfaction to find that 
the vessel was adrift. This was a great relief to 
us, for had a gale sprung up in the night, which 
was closing in, we must have taken to the boat, 
and abandoned the vessel, a perilous undertaking, 
from which we all felt too happy to have escaped. 
I was told by the captain that the coast here 
abounds with hidden sand-banks of the descrip- 
tion we had encountered. This, perhaps, together 
with the poor harbour accommodation in Florida, 
accounts for the small size of the vessels which 
generally trade there. 

The desolate look of the coast from the deck 
of the vessel, did not convey to my mind a very 
favourable impression of the country, and the 
hostile disposition of the Indians tended not a 
little to excite forebodings of evil, that at one 
time almost induced me to abandon my intention, 
and return to the north. These apprehensions 
were, however, allayed by the representations of 
the captain of the vessel, who stated that the 
Indians seldom attempted to molest armed 
parties, and that an understanding with the 
government was daily expected, through the re- 
cent capture of some important sachems or chiefs, 



122 TALLAHASSEE. 

under whose influence and leadership hostilities 
had been carried on. This information reassured 
me, and I determined to proceed, although I 
found afterwards that it was almost entirely a 
misrepresentation, which, however, I cannot be- 
lieve was wilful, as the captain would have had 
me for a passenger on the return voyage. 

I soon after landed in a boat from the shore. 
The bay or harbour of St. Marks is not attractive, 
neither is the town, which presents a desolate 
appearance. The houses or stores are chiefly of 
wood, painted white, the Venetian blinds of the 
houses being green, as in most parts of the United 
States. The hotel-entrances were crowded with 
loungers, in snow-white clothing, large Leghorn 
or palmetto hats, and fancy-coloured shirts, who 
smoked cigars incessantly, and generally discussed 
with energy the inroads of the Indians, or other 
leading topics of the day. The houses are low 
and irregularly built, and the appearance of the 
whole place and its inhabitants, as far as I could 
see, wore a forbidding aspect, and was indicative 
of anything but prosperity. 

My next stage was to Tallahassee by railroad, 
through a desolate-looking country, whose soil 
was sand, and whose vegetation looked stunted, 
presenting little to cheer the senses, or call forth 
remark ; in fact, everything around told of a 
country whose centre is flourishing, but whose 



COLONEL GAMBOLE. 123 

frontiers are a wilderness. Just before we started, 
a well-dressed negro, apparently a footman or 
butler, applied for a seat in the carriage. He 
was told by the station-keeper, that there was no 
conveyance for " niggers " this train, and he must 
wait for the following one. He at first disputed 
his right to refuse him a passage in the carriage, 
which roused the ire of the station-keeper, who 
threatened to kick him if he was not soon off. 
This seemed to awe him, for he quietly left the 
station, muttering, however, as he went, his in- 
tention of reporting the circumstance to Colonel 
Gambole. This caused me to make some inquiry 
about the colonel whose name he had mentioned, 
and who I learned was his master. I was also in- 
formed that no negroes in that district were so 
insolent, owing to the indulgence with which all 
his hands were treated. I could see, however, 
that the negro had different men to deal with 
here, and if he had not taken his departure, he 
would, without a doubt, have been kicked or 
felled to the ground, on the least further provo- 
cation — a course pursued without hesitation in 
cases where a negro assumes anything like equality 
in the south. 



] 24 FLORIDA. 



CHAPTER V. 



" The fragrant birch above him hung 

Her tassels in the sky, 
And many a vernal blossom sprung, 

And nodded careless by. 
But there was weeping far away ; 

And gentle eyes for him, 
With watching many an anxious day, 

Were sorrowful and dim." — Bryant. 

Florida, in which state I now found myself, is 
divided into East, West, and Middle. It is a 
wild extent of country, about 300 miles from 
north to south. The king of Spain held posses- 
sion of the territory in 1810, but it was after- 
wards ceded by treaty to the Federal Government. 
It was discovered in 1497 by Sebastian Cabot. 
St. Augustine is the capital of East, and Pensacola 
of West, Florida. This country is, for the most 
part, a howling wilderness, and is never likely 
to become thickly populated. The dreary pine- 



deadman's bay. 125 

barrens and sand-hills are slightly undulating, 
and are here and there thickly matted with pal- 
metto. 

In pursuance of my original design, I had now 
to penetrate nearly a hundred miles into the in- 
terior; and, as the Indians and fugitive negroes 
were scouring that part of the country in hostile 
bands, I contemplated this part of my route with 
no little anxiety. I determined, however, to 
proceed. The journey lay through a wild country, 
intersected with streams and rivers, every one of 
which swarmed with alligators. This, although 
not a very pleasant reflection, did not trouble me 
much, as I had by this time become acquainted 
with the propensities of these creatures, and knew 
that they were not given to attacking white men, 
unless provoked or wounded, although a negro 
or a dog is never safe within their reach. They 
are, however, repulsive-looking creatures, and it 
is not easy to divest the mind of apprehension 
when in their vicinity. 

My destination was an inlet of the sea, called 
Deadman's Bay, from whence it was my intention, 
after transacting some business I had undertaken, 
to take passage by steamer to Cuba, intending to 
return to the continent, after a limited stay there, 
and on some of the adjacent islands. In this, 
however, I was disappointed, as I shall by-and-by 
show. My plan was to travel by easy stages 



126 OUR BIVOUAC. 

under escort, and encamp out at night ; so, 
having secured the services of six men, who were 
well armed and mounted on horseback, and having 
furnished ourselves with a tent and other necessa- 
ries, which were carried by individuals of the 
party, we left Tallahassee, on our way inland, 
under a scorching sun. We could proceed but 
slowly after reaching the pine-barrens, the soil 
of which is loose sand, and at every step the 
animals we rode sank to the fetlock, which caused 
them to be greatly fatigued at the close of the 
day. 

At night-fall, after selecting our ground ad- 
jacent to a river, we pitched our tent, and supper 
was prepared. This consisted of jerked venison 
(dried by a slow fire), broiled turkey, two of 
which we had shot upon our way, bread, and 
coffee. One of our party walked round our posi- 
tion as a sentinel, and was relieved every two 
hours ; it being necessary to keep a vigilant look 
out, on account of the Indian and runaway negro 
marauders, who roam through these wilds in 
bands, and subsist chiefly in plundering farms 
and small parties. A huge fire of resinous pine 
branches (which are plentiful in these solitudes, 
and strew the ground in all directions, blackened 
with fire and age) was blazing to keep off the 
wolves and catamounts, whose terrific yells, in 
conjunction with other beasts, prevented our 



ANNOYANCES OF TRAVEL. 127 

sleeping. They did not, however, venture within 
rifle shot. The Indians, on attacking small parties, 
have a practice of imitating the cry of the wolf, 
and this circumstance being known to us, tended 
not a little to raise our suspicions on hearing the 
fearful bowlings that rang through the wilder- 
ness. 

In the morning, we proceeded through barren 
sandplains, skirted with dense hammocks (jungles) 
and forests. We were much annoyed by mosqui- 
toes and sand-flies, which kept the whole party 
in discomfort from their attacks. Dusky-looking 
deer-flies constantly alighted on our faces and 
hands, and made us jump with the severity of 
their bites, as did also a large fly, of brilliant 
mazarine blue colour, about the size of a humble 
bee, the name of which I have forgotten. 

In crossing one of the numerous streams, we 
had to wade or swim our horses over, an incident 
occurred which rather alarmed me. I was on a 
horse of that Arabian blood, build, and spirit, so 
common in saddle-horses in America, and a little 
in advance of the party, when I reached a river 
that intersected our track, and which we had to 
cross. After allowing the animal to quench its 
thirst, I applied spurs and urged it into the 
stream ; it being averse from some cause to take 
the water. The stream was, however, deeper 
than I anticipated, and the horse immediately 



128 AN ALLIGATOR. 

began to stumble and flounder in an alarming 
manner, showing that the river bed was uneven 
and rocky. About half-way across was a small 
island, that divided the stream, which after much 
difficulty he reached ; resting here about a min- 
ute, I again urged him forward, but the animal 
seemed very reluctant to go. He wheeled short 
round, snorted loudly as if in fear, and was evi- 
dently in unusual alarm. After some coaxing, 
he, however, plunged into the water, and I ex- 
pected to be able to gain the opposite shore in 
advance of my companions, but just as we were 
half-way between the little island and the oppo- 
site bank, which was very steep, the horse again 
became restive, rearing as if dreadfully frightened. 
I had the greatest difficulty to keep the saddle, 
which was a high Mexican one, covered with 
bear-skin, and as easy to ride in as a chair. I 
now began to suspect the cause of his alarm. The 
stream was one of those black-looking currents 
that flow noiselessly along, and which in Florida 
always harbour the largest-sized alligators. When 
I first came to it, I remembered this, and thinking 
to frighten off any of these lurkers that might be 
in the vicinity, I had dashed precipitately into 
the stream. This practice, or shouting loudly and 
firing a pistol into the water, usually succeeds. 
I soon found out, however, that the presence of 
one of the ugly creatures was the cause of the 



THE CAYMAN. ] 29 

horse's trepidation, for, within six feet of us, I 
discerned a pair of eyes, set in huge brown ex- 
crescences, fixed intently on me and my horse, 
with malicious gaze. I knew they belonged to a 
veteran, and dreading lest its snout might be 
within two feet of my leg, for the old alligators 
boast enormous length of jaw, I sat tailor-wise 
in my saddle, and levelled my rifle at the horrid 
object ; the reptile had, however, observed my 
movements, and disappeared beneath the surface ; 
I instantly discharged my piece in the direction 
he had taken, and certainly gave him a lesson, 
for the water around me was directly after tinged 
with blood ; he was probably hurt severely, or 
he might have resented my temerity. I soon 
after reached the shore in safety, where I was 
speedily joined by the escort, who saw nothing of 
the reptile in their way across, and who, being 
men bred amongst such scenes, and totally 
divested of fear, at once took the water, although 
they had witnessed the encounter. 

The cayman of South America is very ferocious, 
and is popularly styled the hyena, of the alligator 
tribe. This savage creature will instantly attack a 
man or ahorse, and on this account the Indians of 
Chili, before wading a stream, take the precaution 
of using long poles, to ascertain its presence or to 
drive it away. Naturalists assert that the cay- 
man is not found in the North American rivers, 

K 



130 FORT ANDREWS. 

and I should imagine this to be correct, for, 
although engaged in many alligator hunts, I found 
from personal experience and minute inquiry 
that the species found in North America is harm- 
less if unmolested. 

After a laborious ride we arrived at Fort An- 
drews, where we found a military station of U.S. 
Infantry. We halted here for several days, I 
having business requiring my attention, and our- 
selves and our beasts needing to recruit our 
strength, before continuing our route to tlfe Bay. 
The forest scenery here almost defies descrip- 
tion. Immense cedars, and other lordly trees, 
rear their gigantic and lightning-scathed heads 
over their smaller and less hardy but graceful 
neighbours ; cactuses, mimonias, and tropical 
shrubs and flowers, which at home are to be seen 
only in conservatories or green-houses are here 
in profusion, 

" And plants, at whose name the verse feels loath, 
Fill the place with a monstrous undergrowth, 
Prickly, and pulpous, and blistering, and blue, 
Livid, and starred with a lurid hue ; " 

while innumerable forms of insect and reptile 
life, from the tiny yellow scorpion to the murky 
alligator of eighteen feet in length, give a for- 
bidding aspect to the scene. Racoons, squirrels, 
wild turkeys, pelicans, vultures, quails, doves, 
wild deer, opossums, chickmuncks, white foxes, 



GENERAL TAYLOR. 131 

wild cats, wolves, — are ever and anon to be seen 
among the high palmetto brakes, and the alli- 
gators in the bayous and swamps, u make night 
hideous " with their discordant bellowings and 
the vile odour which they emit. The tout ensemble 
of the place brings to recollection those striking 
lines of Hood, 

" O'er all there hung the shadow of a fear, 
A sense of mystery the spirit daunted, 
And said, as plain as whisper in the ear, 
The place is haunted." 

During my stay at Fort Andrews, a large 
detachment of U. S. trQops arrived, continuing 
a campaign against the recreant Indians and 
negroes. The appearance of the men and officers 
was wretched in the extreme; they had for weeks 
been beating through swamps and hammocks, 
thickly matted with palmetto bush, which had 
torn their undress uniforms in tatters, searching 
for an invisible enemy, who, thoroughly acquainted 
with the everglades, defied every attempt at cap- 
ture. The whole party looked harassed, disap- 
pointed, and forlorn. General Taylor was with 
and had command of this detachment, which was 
about 400 strong. As I had heard this man 
vauntingly spoken of in the north, as the brave 
cotemporary of Scott, I felt no little curiosity to 
see him. His appearance surprised me. He was 
a burly, unmilitary-looking man, of most for- 



132 CRIES OF DISTRESS. 

bidding aspect, and much more like a yeoman 
than a soldier. A sword, much out of place, 
dangled awkwardly by his side, and was the only 
badge of his profession about him, except a black 
leathern cap ; otherwise, he was habited as a 
private citizen. His small army encamped below 
the fort; and, as I thought, in most un-general 
style, he superintended the erection of his own 
marquee. He had with him several negroes, who 
were his body servants ; and the coarse epithets 
he applied to them during the operation did not 
prepossess me in his favour, or, I thought, reflect 
much credit on his refinement. 

At nightfall cries of distress arose from the 
marquee, and as I approached it I could distinctly 
hear one of the bondsmen earnestly pleading for 
mercy. Listening for a moment, I heard this dis- 
tinguished general exclaiming vociferously, and 
belabouring the poor negro heavily with a raw- 
hide whip ; most likely venting the spleen he felt 
at his non-success against the Indians, the ex- 
pedition having hitherto been unsuccessful. The 
poor negro had offended his master, by some 
trivial act, no doubt, and in southern style he 
was correcting him, without much regard, it is 
true, to publicity. This, in southern latitudes, is 
so common, that it is thought little of; and the 
occurrence caused on this occasion only a passing 
remark from those present. The negro was his 



A RAGGED REGIMENT. 138 

own, and he had a right, it was stated, to correct 
him, as and when he pleased ; who could dispute 
it ? For my own part, I entertained the most 
abhorrent feelings towards a man, who, without 
sense of shame, or decent regard for his station, 
thus unblushinglv published his infamy amongst 
strangers ; and this man a would-be patriot, too, 
and candidate for the Presidential chair, which, 
it will be remembered, he afterwards obtained. I 
was told that flogging his negroes was a favourite 
pastime with this eminently-distinguished general, 
and that he was by no means liked by his officers 
or men. His appearance bespoke his tyrannical 
disposition ; and this, coupled with incapacity, 
there is little doubt, conduced to make it neces- 
sary for him to relinquish his command of the 
army of the south, which he did not long after, 
being succeeded, I believe, by General Armstead. 
As I mentioned before, the force that accom- 
panied him was in forlorn case, reminding me 
strongly of Shakspere's description of Falstaff's 
ragged regiment. It consisted chiefly of raw, 
undrilied troops, quite unused to discipline, but, 
perhaps, as effective as veterans in the service 
in which they were employed, the adroitness 
of the enemy, accustomed to the interminable 
swamps, hammocks, and cane-brakes which abound 
in this country, quite paralyzing the energies of 
the men, and destroying that esprit du corps 



134 INDIAN SACHEMS. 

without which no success can be expected in an 
army. 

Several Indian sachems or chiefs accompanied 
the command ; these were fine-looking fellows, 
but appeared exhausted from long marching 
through the wilderness. One of these, named 
Powell, particularly attracted my notice ;. he was 
a very interesting young man, of feminine aspect, 
and little resembling his stalwart companions. 
He had originally been captured, but by kind 
treatment had been brought over to friendly 
views, and was now acting as a guide. It was 
stated that his father was much incensed against 
him, and had employed emissaries to despatch 
him secretly. A few months after this campaign I 
heard that he was shot while out hunting ; no 
doubt, at the instigation of his unnatural parent, 
who preferred his death to his continuing in 
league with white men. 

Leaving Fort Andrews, I now pushed onward 
to Deadman's Bay. The country we passed 
through was much the same as I have before 
described ; the journey took us the better part 
of two days. On the way we saw a herd of wild 
cattle, which scoured the plain in consternation 
on espying our party ; urging on our horses, we 
tried to bring one down, but they outstripped us. 
Some miles farther on, and near a thick ham- 
mock, about a quarter of a mile a-head, a huge 



WOLVES. ] 85 

black bear stood snuffing the air ; we again put 
spurs to our horses to try to intercept his retreat, 
but he was too quick for us, and made at his 
utmost speed (a sort of shambling trot) for the 
coppice or jungle, which he soon entered, and 
disappeared from our sight. At nightfall, a pack 
of ravenous wolves, headed by a large white one, 
serenaded us, and came near enough to our camp- 
fire to seize a small terrier belonging to one of 
the party. The poor animal, unused to the dan- 
gers around, had the temerity to run out and 
bark at the pack — he soon after gave one agoniz- 
ing yelp, and we never saw him again. As a 
reprisal, three of the party fired, and brought one 
of the wolves to the ground ; he was of great 
size, and, I should say, could have carried away 
a sheep, or a good sized hog (of which they are 
very fond), with ease. We could not, however, 
skin him — he was so infested with fleas. In the 
settlements they often seize and carry off chil- 
dren, but they do not molest adults. 

As we proceeded, we kept a vigilant look-out 
for Indians, a number of whom, we had heard 
at Fort Andrews, had been driven in the direc- 
tion we were travelling. We fortunately escaped 
molestation, but saw in several places human 
bones, probably the relics of a former combat 
between the United States troops, or travellers 
like ourselves, and Indians or negroes. One 



136 UNTRODDEN SOLITUDES. 

skull I picked up had been split with a toma- 
hawk, besides having a bullet-hole in it about 
the region of the left ear. Our situation was one 
of great peril, but I had made up my mind to 
proceed at all hazards, despite the opposition 
shown by two or three of the settlers composing 
my escort, who, on more than one occasion, 
pointed out Indian camp-grounds of only a few 
days' age. At one of these we found a quantity 
of Indian flour or arrowroot, part of a bridle, 
and the offal of a calf; but we left the former, 
imagining it might be poisoned, the latter was of 
no use, our only dog having been devoured by 
the wolves. Passing through a dense hammock, 
of a quarter of a mile in width, through which 
the pioneers of the American army had recently 
cut a rough road, I dismounted, to take a view 
of these sombre shades on either hand. The 
solemn stillness around seemed to me like the 
shadow of death — especially so, from the peril 
we were in through the deadly feud existing at 
the time between the Indians and white men. 
I penetrated for full a quarter of a mile into this 
fastness in a lateral direction, and, in doing so, 
suddenly startled two immense white birds of 
the adjutant species, which were standing in a 
swamp surrounded by majestic cedar trees. I 
could easily have brought one down with my 
rifle, but I thought it wanton cruelty to do so. 



DREAD OF MOLESTATION. 137 

They were, I should think, quite six feet high, 
and beautifully white, with a yellow tinge. The 
head of one, which, I suppose, was the male bird, 
was surmounted by a golden crest. They sailed 
quietly away over my head, not appearing much 
alarmed by the intrusion. 

In these primeval shades, where, perhaps, the 
foot of man never before trod (for I looked in 
vain for such traces), are many beasts, birds, 
and reptiles, which live in perfect security ; for, 
although the Indian dwells here, and subsists by 
hunting, yet the territory is so vast, and the red 
men are so few in proportion, that there can be 
little doubt that many places are untraversed. 

Emerging on the open sand-plain somewhat 
unexpectedly, I caused my party no little alarm ; 
they instinctively grasped their rifles, imagining 
the approach of a party of hostile Indians. 

The constant dread of molestation causes the 
traveller here to be ever on the qui-vive, the pre- 
caution being highly necessary, to prevent sur- 
prise. The least movement in a coppice excites 
apprehension, and fills the soul of both the reso- 
lute and the timorous with anticipations of danger. 
Nor are these fears groundless, for the treacherous 
Indian crawls stealthily to the attack, and, with- 
out a moment's warning, two or three of a 
party may fall to the earth, pierced by rifle- 
balls, or rearing horses may throw the riders, 



138 SNAKES 

and leave them at the mercy of these ruthless 
assassins. 

Arriving at length at the Bay in safety, I was 
accommodated in the officers' quarters of a tem- 
porary fort or stockade, erected there. The 
steamer had left, so that I was compelled to 
remain here longer than I had intended, await- 
ing the arrival of the next boat. To beguile 
the time, I went for miles into the forests, 
looking for game, often coming back disappointed 
and weary ; at others rewarded by, perhaps, a 
racoon, or, what I valued more, a fawn or wild 
turkey. There was, however, plenty of sport 
on the river, and thousands of wild ducks, gan- 
net, and pelicans, inhabited the little islands in 
the vicinity, and reared their young there ; some 
of these islands being covered with their eggs. 
Large numbers of alligators infested the streams 
adjacent, and their bello wings, in concert with 
bull-frogs and other reptiles, often banished 
sleep for nights together, although I was pretty 
well accustomed to such annoyances. Snakes 
were often to be met with, although harmless if 
unmolested ; amongst these, the moccason, hoop, 
and garter snakes, of which I procured several 
specimens, were the most common to be met 
with. Rattle-snakes exist in rocky districts, but 
I saw none of them here. 

The steamer not arriving as I anticipated, after 



CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE INDIANS. 139 

remaining for a considerable time, and getting 
tired of so solitary a life, I determined to retrace 
my steps to Tallahassee. 

While remaining at this post, a party of mounted 
volunteers arrived from Georgia. These men 
were mostly sons of farmers, who had suffered 
from the unceasing attacks of the Indians on 
their farms, in many instances accompanied by 
the butchery of some members of their families. 
It was arranged that a company of U.S. Infantry, 
stationed at the fort, should act in concert with 
these men, and scour the country for twenty miles 
round, to search for Indians, traces of whom had 
been seen, and who, it was very certain, were 
encamped not many miles off. As I felt desirous 
of observing the operations of these little cam- 
paigns against so wily a foe, I intimated to a 
major, my intention of accompanying the expedi- 
tion. He was pleased with the proposal, and 
furnished me with a splendid rifle and other 
equipments, from the stores of the depot. After 
a short delay, owing to the non-arrival of some 
waggons that were intended to accompany the 
expedition, the whole force mustered in front of 
the stockade enclosure, and being furnished with 
ten days' provisions for man and horse, started 
under command of the major aforesaid, across 
the sand-plains, in order to reach a dense cedar 
and cypress swamp, ten miles distant, where it 



140 PARLEY WITH THE ENEMY. 

was suspected the enemy was concealed. After a 
tedious march through a wild country, so over- 
grown with saw palmetto and underbrush, that 
our horses had great difficulty to get through it, 
we arrived at the skirts of the swamp; here a 
consultation took place between the officers 
present, and it was arranged that an Indian 
guide whom we had with us, should go in and 
hold a parley with the Indians, to induce them if 
possible, to surrender. The guide went into the 
hammock, which extended along the edge of the 
swamp as far as the eye could reach, right and 
left. I should have mentioned, that this man, 
with the usual Indian acuteness, had discovered 
indubitable signs that the enemy was in the 
vicinity, long before we reached the spot. After 
an absence of about an hour, during which time 
we refreshed ourselves, and made preparations for 
an expected struggle, our guide returned, bring- 
ing with him a bow and quiver of arrows, as 
proofs of his interview with the secreted Indians. 
The account he gave, which was interpreted by a 
half-bred Indian who accompanied the expedi- 
tion for the purpose, was, that after penetrating 
some distance into the fastness, he came to the 
encampment of the enemy, and was instantly sur- 
rounded by warriors, who seized him, but after 
parleying for a considerable time, let him go, pre- 
senting him with a bow and arrows, as a symbol 
of their unflinching resolve to continue the war. 



ATTACK. 141 

On hearing this, it was at once determined by 
the officer in command that the whole force 
(except a guard for the horses and waggons) 
should go in and surprise them. The guide shook 
his head at this, and, pointing towards the swamp, 
said, " That is the way. I have shown it to you ; 
follow it if you will ; I do not go/' It was, 
however, of no use to dally, and orders were 
given for all hands to follow into the swamp. 
For my own part, I wished to stay behind, but 
was told that such a course was attended with 
danger, as the Indians would most likely emerge 
from another part of the hammock, and endeavour 
to seize the horses, and ransack the waggons. 
This decided my adopting the least of the two 
evils, although I fully expected we should have 
a battle. After penetrating for I should think 
upwards of two miles, sometimes up to our knees 
in miry clay, and often stopped by impassable 
barriers of wild vines and other prehensile plants, 
which annoyed us greatly, and made me regret 
a thousand times that I had courted such dangers 
and inconveniences, the sound of two rifle-shots 
threw the whole party into indescribable com- 
motion. Supposing we were attacked, all hands 
flew as quick as thought to the trees around, 
where each one, peeping from behind the trunks 
which were sought as a shelter against the rifle- 
balls of the expected foe, waited for a few 



142 THE ENCAMPMENT. 

moments in great suspense, when, suddenly, a 
loud cheer from the party in advance, followed 
by several rifle-shots, told us they had come upon 
the encampment As the firing ceased, I knew 
the Indians had fled; this seemed also the opinion 
of the volunteers near me, who simultaneously 
left their hiding-place, and pushed forward to 
the scene. On arriving at the spot, I found the 
soldiers around a large Indian fire, over which 
was suspended a boiling cauldron, filled with 
venison, the Indians having been, no doubt, pre- 
paring a meal when disturbed by us ; by the side, 
and not far from the fire, was a large trough, 
made out of a fallen tree, in which was a quantity 
of arrowroot in course of preparation. This plant 
grows plentifully in this latitude, and is the 
principal fare of the Indians, their squaws super- 
intending the management of it. The remains 
of a fine buck lay near, and also some moccasons, 
leggings, and other Indian gear. 

The enemy we had so unceremoniously dis- 
turbed had, as usual, taken flight ; but we found 
traces of blood, and the advanced party stated 
that they had fired on two warriors, who, with a 
woman and two children, were on the spot when 
they came up. 

As it was deemed quite useless to pursue them, 
from their being, no doubt, well acquainted with 
the intricacies of the fastness, and, therefore, sure 



A MERRY EVENING. 143 

to evade us, we regaled ourselves on the venison, 
of which some refused to partake, lest it should 
be poisoned. It was decided that the force should 
emerge from the swamp to the open plain about 
a mile above the spot where we had left the 
waggons, by a circuitous route ; this was accord- 
ingly done, but our progress was so difficult, that 
the Indians had ample opportunity to fly before 
us, and we saw no further traces of them. 

On reaching the waggons, we found, to our 
great satisfaction, that all was safe, and as night 
was approaching, it was decided to encamp there, 
a spring of turbid water being in the vicinity 
A cordon of sentinels was accordingly placed 
around our resting-place, and some tents were 
pitched for a portion of the party ; the remainder, 
wrapped in blankets, sleeping on the sand. After 
the whiskey had passed round, the jocular little 
major in command proposed a song, and as one 
of the infantry soldiers was an adept at the art, 
he was invited to our marquee. Although in the 
very midst of danger, for we knew not how for- 
midable in number the Indians were, we passed 
a merry evening. 

Soon after this affair, the party returned to 
the bay, and in a day or two I started on my 
return to Tallahassee. About twenty miles from 
Deadman's Bay, we overtook a fugitive negro, 
and as we came upon him unexpectedly, when 



144 A FUGITIVE NEGRO. 

turning the edge of a hammock, he had not time 
to retreat, being within rifle-range, or he would 
doubtless have done so. He threw up his arms, 
and gave a piercing shriek (an unvariable custom 
of Indians when in danger), expecting to be in- 
stantly shot. He had, however, nothing to fear, 
having fallen in with friends and not foes. As 
I saw he Avas without a rifle, I dashed forward 
and accosted him first. He was soon assured, 
by my manner of addressing him, and begged 
earnestly that we would not detain or hurt him. 
This I at once promised, if he would inform us 
whether Indians were near. He said no, they 
had left that country two suns (days) ago, taking 
an easterly direction, and we might proceed to 
Fort Andrews in safety. 

After putting several other questions to him, 
I inquired if the Indians would cross our path to 
Tallahassee from that post, He said no, they were 
far off in another direction, having gone to East 
Florida, eighty miles distant. The fellow was in 
poor case, and begged for food, saying he was 
starving. I, therefore, desired the men to supply 
him with some dried venison and bread, which 
he ate with avidity. He refused to tell me his 
master's name, but said there were hundreds of 
negroes fighting with the Indians, six from the 
same plantation as himself. My companions were 
at first intent upon securing him, but being 



CAPTURED INDIAN WOMEN. 145 

averse to that course, I dared them to do it ; 
when, seeing I was fully determined on this 
point, they did not insist. Pointing to the ham- 
mock, after giving him a dram of brandy, I bid 
him be off, when he darted like a deer into the 
thicket, and disappeared from our view, with a 
loud shout of exultation. 

About ten miles further on, as we passed the 
edge of a dense hammock, we heard the bay of 
an Indian dog, and fearing the proximity of a 
party of marauders, we were instantly on the 
alert. The dog did not, however, come out of the 
wood, and we rode from the dangerous vicinity 
with all dispatch. Arrived again at Fort An- 
drews, without any further adventure worth re- 
cording, we found a party of volunteers about to 
proceed to Fort Pleasant, in the direction we 
were going. After recruiting my now almost 
exhausted strength by a refreshing sleep, I went 
down to their encampment, by the river's edge. 
They had the day before encountered a strong 
party of Indians, whom they repulsed with loss. 
Some of the party showed me several bloody 
scalps of warriors they had killed. I could not 
help remarking the beauty of the hair, which 
was raven-black, and shone with a beautiful gloss. 
They had several captured Indian women with 
them, and half-a-dozen children; the former were 
absorbed in grief, and one in particular, whose 

L 



146 TERTIAN AGUE. 

young husband had been shot in the fray, and 
whose scalp was one of those I have just men- 
tioned, was quite overwhelmed. The children, 
little conscious of the misery of their parents, 
swam about and dived in the river like amphi- 
trites ; they each carried a small bow and quiver 
of arrows. There is no doubt the Indians these 
volunteers had fallen in with and routed, were 
the identical party referred to by the negro we 
had met some forty-eight hours before. 

I had made up my mind to stay at Fort An- 
drews for a time, partly to fulfil an engagement 
with a friend whom I had arranged to meet here, 
and to whom I shall shortly have to refer more 
at length, and partly to recruit my strength, a 
tertian ague having seized me, which much de- 
bilitated my frame, and made travelling very 
irksome. My accommodation was indifferent, but 
medical assistance, which I needed most, was 
not wanting, and I shall never forget the courtesy 
of the officers. 

I employed my time chiefly in rambling the 
woods, when health would permit, and had a boat 
lent to me, with which, in company, I several times 
penetrated the tortuous river, Esteenahatchie, to 
the bay, some miles distant. At night the boats 
were all sunk, or they would have been stolen 
or destroyed by the Indians, who hovered round 
and committed petty depredations at every oppor- 



AN INDIAN WARRIOR. 147 

tunity. Below the fort, was a ruinous mill, in a 
gloomy dell, through which the river wended its 
silent course. This had once been tenanted, but 
the inhabitants were murdered some years before 
by the Indians, who afterwards (as is their almost 
unvarying custom), added to the atrocity by set- 
ting fire to the building. 

Sitting one day, after a lengthened ramble, in 
solitary meditation on my position and the sur- 
rounding scenery, I saw a fine Indian, who ap- 
peared greatly fatigued, emerge from the adjoining 
hammock, and walk to the edge of the stream, 
and there, after glancing round him with eager 
eye and air, he laid down his rifle, and stepping 
on to a tree which debouched into the stream 
(lying as it had been struck down by a tornado), 
he crouched down at the end of it, and com- 
menced laving himself with the water. His ap- 
pearance was romantic, and there is no doubt, 
from his dress, he w^as a warrior of some note, 
probably following his wife, one of the squaws 
captured by the volunteers I have before men- 
tioned, and who were still at Fort Andrews, 
awaiting orders from General Taylor. I could 
have shot him to a certainty, had I been armed, 
which was not the case. Had it been so, how- 
ever, I was predetermined never, unless in self- 
defence, to imbrue my hands in Indian or negro 
blood while in the territory, neither was I dis- 



148 A PLEASANT COMPANION. 

posed to betray him, for I deeply sympathized 
with the misfortunes of his race, and well knew 
that an inexcusable spirit of aggrandizement on 
the part of the Federal Government had in the 
first place roused the indignation of both negroes 
and red men, and provoked hostilities. After per- 
forming his ablution, the Indian stalked like a 
deer into the recesses of the forest, I having in 
the mean time, as a matter of policy, moved out 
of danger, for he was no doubt animated with 
feelings of dire revenge, and in a very different 
mood from that in which I have described myself 
to have been at the time. 

During my visit to Deadman's Bay, I had 
become acquainted with a Scotch gentleman, 
who was employed on the medical staff of the 
U.S. army, I believe, as a supernumerary, or can- 
didate for a commission as a surgeon. He was 
a most agreeable companion, of good natural 
parts, fluent in conversation, intelligent in re- 
mark, free from egotism, and well educated, I 
believe, at Cambridge, in England. We soon 
became attached to each other. He accompanied 
me in my rambles, and we were almost insepa- 
rable companions during my stay. He was one 
of those beings, in fine, who seem to be sent at 
times to cheer the darkened highway of existence 
under gloomy circumstances ; and I fondly hoped 
to enjoy with him a lengthened period of vir- 



ARRIVAL OF MY FRIEND^ ESCORT. 149 

tuous intimacy, and close, unalloyed friendship, 
on more propitious soil. 

But the decrees of Providence are inscrutable, 
and " his ways/' indeed, " past finding out/' This 
was certainly strikingly exemplified by the catas- 
trophe I am about to relate, which deprived me 
for ever of my friend. 

When at the bay, he expressed a wish to visit 
St. Marks, Tallahassee, and Apalachicola, and 
stated his intention, as soon as his engagements 
permitted, to proceed thither by steamer, if oppor- 
tunity offered — or failing this, to go overland, 
availing himself of some escort which might be 
proceeding in that direction. As I felt desirous 
to have his company, on my route to South Caro- 
lina, I arranged to halt at Fort Andrews, as 
before stated, that he should join me there in a 
week, and then proceed in company with me to 
Fort Pleasant, forty miles distant, and thence to 
Tallahassee. 

The time having now come at which I was ex- 
pecting his arrival, I was one morning anxiously 
looking out through the long vista of pine trees 
and barrens, when I descried in the distance two 
horsemen approaching at their greatest speed ; I 
at first imagined them to be, as they indeed 
proved, an advanced party of my friend's escort 
— but, on their coming up, I could see, from the 
agitation they were in, and the foaming state of 



150 THE MURDERED TRAVELLER. 

their horses, which were quite white and in a 
dreadfully exhausted state, that something alarm- 
ing had happened. 

The tale was soon told : — It appeared, that 
about midway between the two settlements, or 
stations, a party of Indians in ambush had fired 
upon the party, and my friend had been treacher- 
ously murdered. I was much affected by this 
intelligence, and, after some consultation with a 
gentleman there, determined to get up a pretty 
strong party, and proceed to the scene of the 
murder, to collect the remains of my poor friend, 
whose bones would otherwise be left, as I had 
seen others in those regions, to bleach on the 
sand hills. We soon started, the party consisting 
of fourteen men, well armed with rifles, bowie 
knives, and pistols, accompanied by a waggon, 
drawn by four stout mules and driven by a negro, 
to convey back the remains. The expedition was 
attended with no little danger, from the prox- 
imity of a newly-discovered party of Indians, 
who were committing dreadful ravages in the 
district — but whether in large or small force, was 
uncertain ; they were, probably, the party I have 
before adverted to, lingering about the vicinity. 

After a melancholy journey, during which we 
were so absorbed by our feelings, that little was 
said; we reached the fatal spot, it being pointed 
out by one of the party who formed my friend's 



INDIANS IN AMBUSCADE. 151 

escort. It was on the edge of a dense hammock, 
by the skirts of which lay some enormous trees, 
which had been levelled by a recent tornado. 
From behind this barricade the Indians had un- 
expectedly fired on the party — the attack was so 
sudden, that they appeared to have been quite 
taken by surprise. This was the more extraor- 
dinary, as the whole neighbourhood was of a 
description likely to be chosen by the red men 
for an ambuscade. The party attacked must 
have been in great trepidation, for, from what I 
could glean, the survivors put spurs to their 
horses' flanks, and galloped off to Fort Andrews, 
leaving my poor friend entirely at the mercy of 
the enemy. The survivor, who accompanied us, 
stated, that they were riding in Indian file, as 

is customary there ; that poor H was in front 

of him ; and that, directly the Indians gave their 
fire, he saw him fall backwards from his horse, 
at the same time raising his left hand to his 
head. He could tell no more, the horse he was 
on having wheeled round suddenly, and been 
urged on in retreat by its rider, who was in the 
greatest imaginable terror. Had the party halted, 
and returned the fire, for they were well armed, 
in all probability some of the marauders would 
have been laid low, or, if the Indians were but 
few, they might at least have rescued my poor 
friend. 



152 THE REMAINS OF MY FRIEND. 

We found foot-marks of Indians, which we 
traced ; by these it appeared that they were in 

small force, and that when H fell from his 

horse he recovered his feet, and ran from the 
enemy, in the direction of the plain, for about 
two hundred yards — here it was evident he had 
been overtaken, and his skull cloven with a toma- 
hawk from behind. We soon discovered his 
remains in the sand, denuded of every particle 
of flesh and muscle by the vultures and the 
ravenous wolves. We collected the bones with 
reverential care, and placed them in the waggon, 
for transit to Fort Andrews. 

On the bones of the little finger of the left 
hand was an emerald ring, which I had often 
seen the murdered man wear, and which, being 
covered with blood and sand at the time of the 
catastrophe, no doubt escaped the attention of 
the villians who perpetrated the atrocious act. 
The left jaw was fractured by a rifle-bullet, which 
knocked him off his horse backwards, as described 
by one of the survivors. 

In the pines opposite the place of ambush, we 
found several balls imbedded, and one had lodged 
in the pummel of the saddle of the man who 
was present, and who formed one of our party. 
It appeared probable that there were not more 
than four or five Indians engaged in the attack ; 
a force which might easily have been repelled 



THE GRAVE. 153 

and annihilated with ordinary courage, but for- 
midable enough to men wanting the presence 
of mind which is necessary under such circum- 
stances. 

After a fatiguing journey, for which I was at 
the time almost totally unfitted by ill-health, our 
party reached Fort Andrews, with the mangled 
remains of the victim. A short time afterwards 
these were committed to the sand, a military 
salute being fired over the grave by some soldiers 
at the garrison. On an elevated slab of wood, 
to the north of Fort Andrews, may be seen a 
zinc plate, erected by me to the memory of my 
friend, with his name, the date of his death, and 
an epitome of the circumstances attending it. 
This memento of regard has, in all probability, 
escaped the cupidity of the Indians, for I took 
the precaution to have it placed as much out of 
sight as possible, and the place of burial was off 
the beaten track. 

Thus perished miserably, one whose generous 
openness and manly virtues rendered him dear 
to all who had the privilege of his acquaintance. 
He was a native of somewhere near Arbroath 
in Scotland, but his accent did not betray his 
nativity. 

In traversing the sandy deserts of West Florida, 
I had frequent opportunities of tracing the devas- 
tating effects of those awful visitations in tropical 



]54 FROM DEADMAN'S BAY TO TALLAHASSEE. 

climates — hurricanes, or tornadoes ; and, notwith- 
standing I had the good fortune to escape the 
danger of being exposed to one, I more than 
once prepared for the worst. One of these was 
accompanied with phenomena so unusual and 
striking to a native of Europe, that I must not 
omit some notice of it, if for no other purpose 
than to convey to the mind of the reader one 
of the many unpleasant but wonderful accom- 
paniments of a residence in these latitudes, so 
poetically, and indeed so truthfully, apostrophized 
as "the sunny south/' 

It was while on a journey (accompanied by 
two yeomen from East Florida, who were pro- 
ceeding to join an expedition against the Indians 
to defend their hearths, and by the friend whose 
melancholy loss I have adverted to) from Dead- 
man's Bay towards Tallahassee, that the occur- 
rence I am about to mention took place. It was 
in the height of summer, and for several days 
Fahrenheit's barometer had ranged from 84 to 90 
degrees, the temperature being occasionally even 
higher, by some degrees, than this. We started 
soon after eight in the morning, and had ridden 
all day under a scorching sun, from the effects of 
which Ave were but ill-defended by our palm-leaf 
hats, for our heads were aching intensely — my 
own being, in common parlance, "ready to split/' 
not an inapt simile, by the way, as I often ex- 



ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA. 155 

perienced in the south. Towards evening, the 
sultriness increased to a great degree, and re- 
spiration became painful, from the closeness of 
the atmosphere. A suspicious lull soon after 
succeeded, and we momentarily expected the 
storm to overtake us. It was not, however, one 
that was to be relieved by an ordinary discharge 
of thunder, lightning, and rain — deeper causes 
being evidently at work. The denseness of the 
air was accompanied by a semi-darkness, similar 
to that which prevails during an eclipse of the 
sun, which luminary, on the occasion I refer to, 
after all day emitting a lurid glare, was so shrouded 
in vapour as to be scarcely discernible, even in 
outline — while a subterranean noise added to the 
terrors of our situation, which strongly called to 
mind the accounts we read of earthquakes and 
similar phenomena. 

We moved slowly on, as people naturally would 
who were about to be overwhelmed in a calamity 
that threatened their annihilation, while an in- 
definable sensation of sleepiness and inertia seized 
the whole of the party. Vultures and other birds 
of prey screamed dismally, as they hovered round 
our heads in the greatest excitement, arising 
either from terror or the anticipation of a rich 
repast, we could not tell which. These voracious 
creatures, with great audacity, often descended to 
within a few feet of the heads of our horses, which 



156 THE IMPENDING TORNADO. 

seemed terror-stricken at their near approach. I 
took aim at one of the largest of them with my 
rifle, and it fell a little to my left, with an im- 
petus I can only compare to the fall of a human 
being. Directly it touched the ground, it vomited 
carrion and died. It was many feet in breadth 
from tip to tip of wing, but we were too perturbed 
to stop and measure it. When I discharged the 
rifle, the report was unusually faint, owing to 
the state of the air ; so much so, that my com- 
panions, who were not fifty yards behind, scarcely 
heard it. The wild animals in the jungle which 
skirted the road, and which, in general, skulk in 
silence and secresy in their haunts, rent the air 
with their howlings. The very order of nature 
seemed about to be reversed, while the long 
streamers of grey moss swayed backwards and 
forwards mournfully from the trees, adding to the 
solemnity of the scene. As the party slowly 
wended its way through the wilderness, each in- 
dividual looked round with suspicion, exchanging 
furtive glances, or now and then uttering some 
exclamation of alarm — their manner and bearing 
indicating minds ill at ease. 

This dismal state of things lasted nearly an 
hour, after which time nature seemed to re- 
cover herself by a sudden throe, for a brisk 
breeze, which was highly refreshing to our senses, 
and which w r as attended by the loud hollow sub- 



UNEXPECTED DELIVERANCE. 157 

terranean sound I have before referred to, unex- 
pectedly sprang up, and swept off, as if by magic, 
the inertia of nature. What made the phenomenon 
more extraordinary, was the total absence of 
thunder or lightning. My companions shouted 
for joy when the hollow moan of the embryo tem- 
pest was heard to move off* to the eastward (for, 
as they informed me, it told of deliverance from 
peril); I felt a sensation of delight I cannot 
describe, and heartily responded to the noisy 
demonstration of satisfaction raised by my com- 
panions. 

Our horses, apparently participating in our 
delight, pricked up their ears, and snorted, fairly 
prancing with pleasure, tired and jaded as they 
were after thirty miles' travel through sand, into 
which they sank at every step fetlock deep, often 
groaning pitifully. 

I noticed that, during the impending storm, they 
hung down their heads in a listless manner, and 
sighed heavily, a circumstance that to our minds 
presaged calamity, and which, I may add, was 
altogether unlike the usual indication of fatigue 
in animals which have travelled a great distance. 
Had the tornado burst upon us, instead of passing- 
off as it did, it is very doubtful whether the hand 
that writes this would not have been mingled 
with its native dust, in the arid sands of Florida ; 
for, as we rode on, we saw gigantic pine, cedar, 



158 EFFECTS OF A HURRICANE. 

and hiccory trees, torn up by the roots, and scat- 
tered over the surrounding country, by by-gone 
hurricanes, many of them hundreds of yards 
from the spot that nurtured their roots — while 
the gnarled branches lying across our track, 
scorched black with the lightning, or from long 
exposure to a burning sun, impeded our advance, 
and made the journey anything but pleasant. 

The occurrence I have mentioned formed a topic 
of conversation for some miles as we journeyed 
to our destination ; and one of my companions 
stated, that a few months before, when in the 
neighbourhood of Pensacola, a hurricane came 
on unexpectedly, and caused great devastation, 
unroofing the houses, tearing up trees, and filling 
the air with branches and fragments of property. 
He happily escaped, although his little estate, 
situated at Mardyke Enclosure, some short dis- 
tance from the town, was greatly injured, and 
some six or eight people were crushed to death 
by the falling trees and ruins of houses. 



PRODUCTIONS OP FLORIDA. 159 



CHAPTER VI. 



" Before us visions come 
Of slave-ships on Virginia's coast, 

Of mothers in their childless home, 
Like Rachel, sorrowing o'er the lost ; 
The slave-gang scourged upon its way, 
The bloodhound and his human prey." — Whittier. 

Florida produces oranges, peaches, plums, a spe- 
cies of cocoa-nut, and musk and water-melons 
in abundance. The more open portions of the 
country are dotted over with clumps of gnarled 
pines, of a very resinous nature, white and red 
oak, hiccory, cedar, and cypress, and is in general 
scantily clad with thin grass, fit only for deer to 
browse upon. The dreary sameness of the in- 
terior of this desolate country is distressing to 
the traveller ; and the journey from one settle- 
ment to another, through pine -forests, seems 
almost interminable. 

One morning, a short time prior to my intended 



160 INDIAN HOSTILITIES. 

departure for Tallahassee, I was roused before 
daybreak by a rifle-shot, which was instantly 
followed by the cry of " Guard, turn out!" and 
much hubbub. As this was no unusual occur- 
rence, from the constant apprehension we were 
in of an attack by the Indians on the stockade, 
and as it had several times occurred before during 
my stay, I resolved to lie and listen awhile be- 
fore I rose. The earnest conversation and the 
noise of horses soon after satisfied me it was only 
a friendly arrival. I, however, felt anxious to ob- 
tain intelligence as to the success of a treaty then 
pending between the United States Government 
and the Indians ; the favourable termination of 
which would not only render my return to Talla- 
hassee more safe, but put a stop, perhaps for ever, 
to those constant scenes of blood and depredation 
that were by this time become quite sickening to 
me. This feeling was much enhanced at the time 
by the express between Fort Andrews and Dead- 
man's Bay, being shot by a party of the common 
enemy. The body of this poor fellow was never 
found, but traces of blood were to be seen near 
the spot where he had been attacked ; and the 
saddle and bridle of his horse were found cut 
into a thousand pieces ; the probability being 
that he was wounded and taken prisoner, doubt- 
less to be tortured to death, a practice common 
with all Indian tribes in time of war. 



BLOODHOUNDS TO HUNT SLAVES. 161 

On my proceeding to a house used as officers' 
quarters, outside the stockade, I found the stir 
had been caused by the arrival of two companies 
of light-horse soldiers from St. Marks, escorting 
several couples of bloodhounds, to aid the army, 
operating in that part of Florida, to exterminate 
the Indians. These dogs were very ferocious, and, 
on approaching the leashmen, who had them in 
charge, they opened in full yell, and attempted to 
break loose. The dogs had just arrived from Cuba 
with their keepers, their importation having been 
caused by the supposition, that, like the Maroons 
in Jamaica, who, for nearly thirty years, defied 
the colonists there, the Indians would be terrified 
into submission. This, however, turned out to be 
erroneous ; for, on their first trial, the Indians 
killed several, and the scheme was very properly 
abandoned a short time after. 

Such barbarous means were very unjustifiable, 
although many (to use the language of the Earl 
of Chatham, when deprecating a similar course 
in the English House of Lords) considered that 
every means that God and nature had placed in 
their hands, were allowable in the endeavour to 
bring to a close a war that had cost the Federal 
Government an immense amount of blood and 
treasure, I am of opinion, however, from what 
I afterwards heard, that the step was not 
an altogether popular one in the eastern and 

M 



162 THE TOBACCO PLANT. 

northern states, although it certainly was so in 
the southern ; it being argued in the public prints 
there, that as dogs had been used in hunting 
down fugitive negroes from time immemorial, the 
mere fact of bloodhounds being used instead of 
mastiffs was a peccadillo unworthy of name. 

The tobacco plant, though growing in many 
parts of Florida spontaneously, like the broad- 
leafed dock in England, is often cultivated in 
garden-ground for domestic use, some of the finer 
kinds being as aromatic as those of Cuba. The 
soil in such places is rich ; indeed, the plant will 
not thrive in many parts where this is not the 
case. The method of propagation, generally fol- 
lowed by the large growers, is that recommended 
by Loudon, in his incomparable Encyclopedia of 
Agriculture, and is as follows : — The soil selected 
is in general loamy and deep ; this is well broken 
up before planting, and frequently stirred to free 
it from the rich growth of weeds that, in Florida 
in particular, choke the growth of all plants if 
neglected. The seeds being small, they are lightly 
covered with earth, and then the surface is pressed 
down with a flat instrument used for the purpose. 
In two months after, the seedlings are ready to 
transplant, and are placed in drills, three feet 
apart every way. These are frequently watered, 
if there happens to be but little rain, which, in 
that arid climate, is often the case for weeks 



MODE OF CULTIVATION. 163 

together, and the plants regularly looked over, to 
destroy a species of worm which, if not removed, 
plays great havoc with the young buds. When 
four inches high, the plants are moulded up like 
potatoes in England ; when they have six or seven 
leaves, and are just putting out a stalk, the top 
is nipped off, to make the leaves stronger and 
more robust. After this, the buds, which show 
themselves at the joints of the leaves, are plucked, 
and then the plants are daily examined, to destroy 
a caterpillar, of a singular form and grey in colour, 
which makes its appearance at this stage, and is 
very destructive to narcotic plants. When fit for 
cutting, which is known by the brittleness of the 
leaves, the plants are cut close to the ground, and 
allowed to lie some time. They are then put in 
farm-houses, in the chimney-corner, to dry ; or, 
if the crop is extensive, the plants are hung upon 
lines in a drying-house, so managed that they 
will not touch each other. In this state, they 
are left to sweat and dry. When this takes place, 
the leaves are stripped off and tied in bundles ; 
these are put in heaps, and covered with a sort 
of matting, made from the cotton-fibre or sea- 
weed, to engender a certain heat to ripen the 
aroma, care being taken lest a fermentation 
should occur, which injures the value of the 
article ; to avoid which the bundles are exposed 
and spread about now and then in the open air. 



I6i DISTRICTS DEVASTATED BY INDIANS. 

This operation is called ventilating by the planters, 
and is continued until there is no apparent heat 
in the heaps. The plant is quite ornamental, and 
its blossoms form a pleasing feature in a garden 
of exotic productions. 

After a brief stay at Fort Andrews, subsequent 
to the last sad offices for my deceased friend, I 
left that spot on horseback for Tallahassee, in 
company with four settlers. We soon reached 
the more populated districts, without being mo- 
lested by the Indians. Here they had committed 
sad devastations ; we saw many farms without 
occupants, the holders having been either mur- 
dered by midnight assassins, or having fled in 
alarm. Adjoining these habitations, we found 
fine peach orchards, teeming with fruit of the 
richest description, which lay in bushels on the 
ground, and with which we regaled ourselves. 
Enclosed maize fields overgrown with brambles, 
and cotton fields with the gins and apparatus 
for packing the produce in bales for the market, 
presented to the eye the very picture of desola- 
tion. 

Owing to cross roads we were at one time com- 
pletely at fault, and there being no house in sight, 
I volunteered to ride off to the right and endea- 
vour to obtain the information we were in need 
of. After riding about half-a-mile, I heard voices 
through a road-side coppice, which I took to be 



AN IGNORANT NEGRO. 165 

those of field-hands at work ; going farther on I 
dismounted, and climbing the zigzag rail fence 
approached a negro at work in the field. I in- 
quired if he could put me on the road to Talla- 
hassee ; he appeared much frightened at the 
intrusion, but stated he did not know, but his 
mas'r did, at the same time pointing to the plan- 
tation-house, situate the greater part of a mile 
distant ; being averse to going there, for fear of 
impudent interrogation, I offered him money to 
go with me to the point where I had left my 
companions, and show us the way to the next 
house ; he did not even know what it was I 
offered him, and in apparent amazement inquired 
what that was for ; I explained, buy tobacco, 
buy whiskey ; he appeared totally ignorant of its 
use, and I have no doubt he had never had money 
in his possession, or learned its use. Still, he re- 
fused to leave the field, a wise precaution, as I 
afterwards found, both for himself and me. The 
negro being resolute, there was now no alterna- 
tive but to go to the house, on arriving at which, 
I met with such a reception as I had feared and 
anticipated. Three fierce dogs of the mastiff' breed, 
regularly trained to hunting fugitive negroes, 
rushed out upon me. I had only a small riding 
whip with me, having left my fire-arms with a 
friend at Fort Andrews, and much dreaded lacer- 
ation. Their noise soon brought out a ferocious, 



166 A HOUSE OF CALL. 

lank-visaged-looking man, about forty years of 
age, who immediately called off the dogs ; but be- 
fore I had time to make the inquiry that brought 
me there, he began in about the following strain, 

" What dye yer waunt up yar, stranger ? Arter 
no good, I guess ; you'd better put it 'bout 
straight. I see'd yer torking to the hands yonder 
— none o' yer 'mancipator doctrines yar/' 

The fellow's address " struck me aU of a heap," 
as he would himself have said, had he been in 
my situation ; he spoke so fast, that I could not 
edge in a word ; at last I stated the cause of my 
intrusion, but he would not believe a word, 
ordered me to quit the plantation or he would 
set the dogs on me, and was getting into such an 
ungovernable rage, that I thought it would be 
wise to follow his advice. So I slowly retreated 
to the yard entrance by which I had come in. 
Returning to my companions at the cross-roads, 
I found that, in my absence, a passer-by had 
given them the wished-for information, and we 
pushed on to a house of call, a few miles distant. 

As the ride was a long one, we halted at this 
house for refreshment, and, after baiting our 
horses, regaled ourselves upon some choice ham 
and eggs. At the table, three little negroes, 
one girl and two boys, under fourtren years of 
age, served as waiters. Their clothing was sup- 
plied by nature, being solely the primitive habi- 



A BRUTE. 167 

liments worn in Eden before the fall. This is 
quite customary in the south, where the rules of 
decency are commonly set at defiance, as if the 
curse of Adam's transgression applied not in this 
respect to the African race. The little creatures 
did not seem to be in the least aware of their 
degraded state ; they were as agile as fawns, and 
their tact in administering to the wants of the 
company was quite remarkable. 

Just as we were about to proceed on our 
journey, a party of some half-a-dozen planters or 
overseers of neighbouring estates, mounted on 
fine mules, who had been searching for fugitive 
field-hands, rode up. I could see they were greatly 
excited, and one of them had a negro lassoed by 
the neck, one end of the rope being fastened to 
his high Spanish saddle. On coming up to the 
entrance gate, the one most in advance dismounted 
to open it ; the mule, eager, perhaps, to get to 
a crib, or, what is more likely, to evade a brutal 
kick or blow, trotted through ; this did not please 
its owner, who bellowed loudly to it to stop. 
The mule, however, still kept on, when the 
ruffian, in demoniac anger, drew from his belt 
a long bowie knife, and darting after the animal, 
hurled it at him with all his force. The blade of 
the weapon, which was six or seven inches long, 
entered and stuck fast in the abdomen of the 
agonized creature, which, for about twenty yards, 



168 CRUELTY TO ANIMALS. 

ran on furiously, with the murderous knife in its 
vitals. It then fell with a deep groan, while the 
fiend who had perpetrated this wanton act of 
barbarity and his companions watched its fall, 
and loudly exulted in it. I noticed that there 
was a deep scowl of hatred on the countenance 
of the negro prisoner as this drama was being 
enacted, and when the knife struck the poor 
mule he cried out, " Oh, mas'r, rnasr ! " Societies 
for the suppression of cruelty to animals, are, as 
might be supposed, unknown in such remote 
situations, nor do they exist in any of the slave 
states and territories of America ; so that redress 
in such a case was out of the question. I there- 
fore consoled myself that the outrage had brought 
its own punishment in the loss of the mule, 
which was at least worth from eighty to one 
hundred dollars. 

Passing onwards, we reached Tallahassee by 
rather a circuitous route, via Mount Pleasant. 
Although in an indifferent state of health, from 
exposure to the poisonous miasma of the country, 
I, on the whole, felt pleased with my journey, 
now that its dangers were over, and grateful to 
the great Dispenser of all good, who had safely 
conducted me through them. At Tallahassee I 
saw in the streets, in charge of a ruffianly-looking 
fellow, two negroes, with heavy iron collars round 
their necks. These were captured run-aways ; the 



GENERAL MURAT. 169 

collars, which must have weighed seven or ten 
pounds, had spikes projecting on either side. 
One of the poor creatures had hold of the spikes 
as he walked along to ease the load that pressed 
painfully on his shoulders. 

General Murat resided at the time in this 
neighbourhood ; he is the brother of Jehoiachin, 
ex-king of Naples, and owns a large plantation, 
and, I was told, upwards of two hundred negroes, 
who were described as being humanely treated by 
him. This, however, is a very indefinite term, 
where all slave-owners profess to do the same, 
though the poor wretches over whom by law 
they impiously assume God's heritage, in ninety 
cases out of every hundred, are scantily clothed, 
worse fed than horses or mules, and worked to 
the utmost extent of human endurance, the 
humanity being, in most cases, left to the tender 
mercies of a brutal overseer, who exacts all he 
can. If the poor, tattered, squalid-looking beings 
I saw in Tallahassee be a fair specimen of the 
" humane treatment " I have referred to, heaven 
help them. 

General Murat, some years ago, married an 
American lady, who delighted in being called the 
" princess/' a little piece of vanity quite in keep- 
ing with the aristocratical prejudices of American 
females in the south, who are devoted worship- 
pers of lordly institutions and usages. I did not 



170 PLEASANT SPORT 

see the general myself, but was told he was often 
to be met lounging about the bars of the prin- 
cipal hotels (being quite Americanized in this 
respect). He was described as a very garrulous 
old gentleman, extremely fond of recounting his 
adventures, particularly his escape when the allied 
troops entered Paris, about the year of Bonaparte's 
subjugation. 

After remaining a few days in Tallahassee, I 
took the conveyance to Macon in Georgia, in- 
tending to pursue my route overland to Charles- 
ton in South Carolina. In the diligence (a 
clumsy apology for a coach) from Tallahassee to 
Macon, were several loquacious passengers. One 
of these amused and disgusted us by turns ; for, 
after giving an epitome of his career, which 
was a chequered one, he related an incident that 
had recently occurred on a plantation he had 
been visiting, and, as it presents a novel feature 
in the asserted rights of slave-holders — how pro- 
fane, I will not stop to inquire — I think it worth 
recording. After a recital of a drunken debauch, 
in which he had taken a part, described by him 
as a frolic, and which had been kept up for several 
days, his host, he said, anxious to show the high 
sense he entertained of the honour of the visit 
by making almost any sacrifice (this was said 
with great conceit), proposed to put a negro up 
with an apple on his head, in imitation of the 



AT A NEGRO'S EXPENSE. 171 

ordeal imposed on William Tell, the Swiss patriot, 
declaring that he who divided the apple, or per- 
forated it with a rifle-ball, should own the slave. 
This proposal, the gentleman very facetiously ob- 
served, the party jumped at, expecting some good 
sport ; but added, " The fellow spoilt it, for he 
refused to stand still, although we c used up' a 
cowhide over him for his obstinacy/' The frivo- 
lous manner in which this intended outrage was 
related, filled me and my fellow-passengers with 
disgust, I thought it was not safe to remark on 
the proceeding, for I could see he was a very 
strenuous upholder of that disgraceful system of 
oppression, which stigmatizes and degrades the 
Americans as a people, and will continue to do 
so, until it is utterly abrogated, and their charac- 
ters retrieved. 

This would-be patrician was a pedantic, swag- 
gering bully, who, it Avas evident, entertained high 
notions of his importance, and owned, perhaps, 
large possessions, — in a word, he was an American 
aristocrat, and the description I have given is a 
fair one of his class in the south. Pointing to a 
hill, as we entered a little settlement on our way 
to Macon, he exclaimed, " See there, gentlemen, 
twenty years ago I toiled up that hill without a 
cent in my wallet (purse), but now " he continued, 
with the air of a potentate, " my niggers are the 
sleekest in our country. In those days/' he 



172 MACON. 

went on, " glass inkstands stood on the desks of 
the bank I now am chief proprietor of; we have 
nothing but gold ones now/' The fellow's bom- 
bast lowered him in the esteem of the passengers, 
who seemed indisposed to listen to him, and the 
latter part of the journey he said little, being in 
fact regularly sent to Coventry by us all. He 
afterwards amused himself much to our annoy- 
ance by whistling airs and singing snatches of 
songs, which caused one of the passengers, a lady, 
to leave the diligence at the next change of 
horses. He was quite an adept at whistling the 
air of " Yankee doodle/' This want of deference 
to the sex, which I must say is an exception to 
the general behaviour of men there and in other 
parts of the Union I visited, did not fail to call 
forth animadversion ; the remarks at one time 
being so pointed, that I began to feel uneasy lest 
the pugnacious spirit might be aroused in him, 
which leads so often in the south to serious en- 
counters. 

Our conveyance, which more resembled a wag- 
gon than a stage-coach, having by this time 
stopped at a large hotel at Macon, I alighted 
with much pleasure, for the roughness of the 
road, the disagreeable loquacity of the passenger 
I have described, and the recklessness of the 
driver, made the journey excessively unpleasant. 

The negro population in Georgia is very nume- 



NEGROES TRAVELLING BY RAIL. 1 73 

rous, and their constant attempts to escape to the 
everglades in Florida, make unceasing vigilance 
on the part of their owners necessary for the 
safety of their oroperty. In many instances 
where suspicion exists, they are never allowed on 
any pretence, to leave the estate or residence of 
the owner. 

At the Greensborough Railway Terminus, I 
noticed two negroes on their way to Charleston. 
Before being allowed to take their seat in an open 
carriage in the rear of the train, the clerk at the 
station stepped up to them, and with an air of 
great effrontery demanded to see their passes; these 
were instantly shown with an alacrity that plainly 
indicated fear ; they were then shut in a box 
in the rear of the train, in which I could see no 
sitting accommodation. The way in which these 
men were treated presented nothing new r , for I 
had invariably noticed that coloured people in 
the south, whether bond or free, w^ere spoken to 
with supercilious haughtiness, which I never once 
saw them openly resent. 

On arriving at the next station a trader got 
into the carriage. He had with him two negro 
men and a boy ; these were secured to each other 
by hand-cuffs and a slight negro chain. 

For the last forty miles of my journey, I had 
a very pleasant companion in a gentleman from 
the state of Alabama. He was a most agreeable 



174 HOW NEGROES ARE MARRIED 

and intelligent young fellow, but invalided like 
myself through the poisonous miasma of the south. 
I entered freely into conversation with him on 
general matters, in the course of which I intro- 
duced slavery in several of its bearings. I soon 
discovered by his bias, that he was decidedly in 
favour of " things as they are/' 

Being anxious to obtain some information as to 
the observance of the nuptial tie amongst slaves, 
I touched upon that subject, when he told me the 
ceremony was mostly a burlesque, and that 
unions were in general but temporary, although 
he had known some very devoted couples. But he 
proceeded to state that there was much room 
for reform in this respect. " I will relate to you 
an instance/' said he, "of the manner in which 
this, as we white people consider it, solemn 
compact, is entered into amongst field-hands. 
When a couple wish to live together as man 
and wife, the male nigger mentions it to the 
overseer, and if there are no impediments, they 
have a cabin assigned to them/' He described 
a scene of this kind, which J will endeavour to 
give verbatim. He said it occurred on his father's 
estate, some years before, and that he was standing 
by at the time, " although," he continued, " 'tis 
done the same now in most instances." A negro 
approached where the overseer was standing, 
apparently, by his sidling manner, about to 



IN THE SOUTH. 175 

ask some favour, when the following colloquy 
ensued. 

Overseer. — "Well, you black rascal, what do you 
stand grinning there for ? 

Negro.- — Please, mas'r, want Lucy for wife. 

Overseer. — Wife, you scoundrel, what do you 
want a wife for ; be off with you, and mind your 
horses. (He was employed as a teamster on the 
estate.) 

Negro.— Oh, mas'r, I loves Lucy. 

Overseer. — And she loves you, 1 suppose. A 
fine taste she must have, indeed. Where are you 
going to live ? 

Negro. — Got room in No. 2 cabin, if mas'r 
please let urn. 

Overseer. — Well, now listen; go along, and take 
her, but, you lazy dog, if you get into any scrapes, 
and don't work like live coals, 111 send her to the 
other estate (which was situated forty miles 
distant), and flay you alive into the bargain. 

The poor fellow, after thanking the overseer 
(not for his politeness, certainly), darted off to 
communicate the joyful intelligence to his affi- 
anced, making the welkin ring with his shouts. 
The gentleman who described this scene said that 
it was always the custom on his father's estate to 
give a gallon or two of whiskey for the attendant 
merry-making. 

After numerous stoppages, the train at length 



176 CHARLESTON. 

reached Charleston. The journey from Greens- 
borough had been a tedious one ; besides the an- 
noyance of slow travelling, through the inefficient 
state of the line, which was so defective that the 
carriages frequently left the rails, the noisome 
effluvia arising from the swamps we had to pass 
through, which harbour innumerable alligators 
and other reptiles, had the most debilitating effect 
on the frame, which was increased by the extreme 
sultriness of the weather After leaving my 
ticket at the terminus, I disposed of my baggage 
by hiring a negro to carry it to my boarding- 
house, and slowly wended my way into the city. 

A spacious public square at the end of King- 
street, through which I had to pass to my table 
d'hote, presented an animated view, the citizens 
being assembled to celebrate the anniversary of 
the Independence conferred by Washington and 
his compatriots by the solemn declaration of the 
4th July, 1776. Long tables, under gay awnings, 
to shield the company from the burning rays of 
the sun, which at the time were intense, groaned 
with every luxury the climate afforded ; but the 
banquet was not furnished by this alone, for 
Cuba and some of the neighbouring islands, it 
was stated, had been ransacked for delicacies. 
Crowds of elegantly-dressed ladies (in general of 
very sallow look and languid air) and spirit-like 
children, with swarthy-looking men, many of 



THE MODEL WAITER. 177 

whose visages bore evident traces of exposure to 
the ill effects of the climate and of dissipation, 
crowded the festive board. The negro attendants 
in dozens moved about with automatic order, 
as is characteristic of all the race on such occasions, 
for the negro is a " model waiter" at a banquet 
Their snowy costumes contrasting strongly with 
their black visages and the jovial scene around. 
The merry peals of laughter, as some unlucky 
wight upset a dish, or scattered the sauce in 
everybody's face within reach, indicated light- 
ness of heart, and merriment and conviviality 
seemed the order of the day. 

The imposing scene before me, after a long 
absence from social meetings in civilized life, 
was very cheering, and, had it not been for the 
inertia I felt at the time, arising from a fatiguing 
journey and the tertian ague, I should have felt 
disposed to participate in the day's enjoyment. 
Other considerations might, however, have pre- 
vented this : I was a stranger to all around, and 
knew that I should be either subjected to imper- 
tinent interrogations, or become the object of 
invidious remark — this, in my debilitated state 
of health, I felt anxious to avoid, as calculated 
to impede my restoration. My joining the assem- 
bled party might also have involved the chance 
of surveillance during my stay, which, before my 
departure for Europe, I intended should be rather 



178 INSURRECTION OF THE SLAVES. 

protracted. I may have been mistaken in this 
view, but, from the character I had heard of the 
place, I felt justified in giving way to the sus- 
picion. 

I was beguiled into the erroneous idea that 
a sense of happiness and security reigned in the 
assembled multitude, a notion quite fallacious, 
from attendant circumstances, as I shall directly 
explain. Troops were stationed at a guard-house 
in the vicinity, and the sentinels paced in front 
of the building, as if in preparation for, or in 
expectation of, a foe, affording a great contrast 
to the apparent security of the inhabitants as- 
sembled in the square. Before reaching Charles- 
ton, I had been apprised of the state of jeopardy 
the citizens were in from the possibility of a 
recurrence of those scenes of anarchy enacted at 
the insurrection of the slaves some time before — 
scenes which had filled every heart with dismay, 
and spread ruin and desolation on every side. 
From what I could glean of that fearful drama, 
the slaves in the surrounding districts, on a con- 
certed signal from their confederates in Charles- 
ton, made a descent upon the city, and, rendered 
furious by long oppression, proceeded to fire it 
and massacre the inhabitants. No language can 
convey an accurate idea of the consternation of 
the white inhabitants, as it was described to me. 
The tocsin was sounded, the citizens assembled, 



THE PRESIDENT'S HEALTH. 179 

armed cap-a-pie, and after much hard fighting, the 
rebellion was crushed, and large numbers of the 
insurgents were slain or arrested. Then came the 
bloody hand of what was impiously termed retri- 
butive justice. A court, or sort of drum-head 
court-martial, not worthy to be called a trial, 
condemned numbers of the slaves to death, and 
they were led out instantly to execution. My in- 
formant told me that many a brave, noble-hearted 
fellow was sacrificed, who, under happier circum- 
stances, though in a cause not half so righteous, 
would have been extolled as a hero, and bowed 
down with honours. Many a humble hearth was 
made desolate, and, in the language quoted by 
my informant, " as in the days of the curse that 
descended on the people of the obdurate Pharaoh, 
every house mourned its dead/' Still, there was 
a strong lurking suspicion that the entente of the 
negroes had only been temporarily suppressed, 
and awful forebodings of fire and of blood spread 
a gloom on the minds of all. This was the 
version given to me by a friend, of what he 
described as the most fearful rising amongst the 
negroes ever before known in the southern states 
of America. 

As I passed up the long range of tables, the 
health of the President of the Republic was 
responded to by the company. The cheers were 
deafening, and, what most surprised me was, 



180 THE SHOPS IN CHARLESTON. 

that the negro waiters joined heartily, I may 
say frantically, in it, and danced about like mad 
creatures, waving their napkins, and shouting 
with energy. Some of the elder ones, I noticed, 
looked mournfully on, and were evidently not 
in a gay humour, seeming a prey to bitter re- 
flections. Notwithstanding the curse of slavery, 
which, like a poisonous upas, taints the very 
air they breathe with the murdered remains of 
its victims, the white citizens of the south are 
extremely sensitive of their civil and political 
rights, and seem to regard the palladium of 
independence secured by their progenitors as an 
especial benefit conferred by the Deity for their 
good in particular. Actuated by this mock 
patriotism (for it is nothing less), the citizens 
of the south omit no opportunity of demon- 
strating the blessings they so undeservedly in- 
herit, and which, if I am not mistaken, will, 
ere many years elapse, be wrested from them, 
amidst the terrible thunders of an oppressed 
and patient people, whose powers of endurance 
are indeed surprising. 

Leaving the square, I passed up King-street, 
at the top of which was my intended boarding- 
house. The shops in this fashionable resort are 
fitted out in good style, and the goods are of 
the best description. After sunset the streets 
are often lined with carriages. The city lies 



EPISCOPALIANS IN AMERICA. 181 

flat, like the surrounding country, and, owing 
to this, is insalubrious ; stagnant water collects 
in the cellars of the houses, and engenders a 
poisonous vapour, which is a fertile source of 
those destructive epidemics, that, combined with 
other causes, are annually decimating the white 
population of the south of the American con- 
tinent in all parts. 

At the top of King-street, facing you as you 
advance, is a large Protestant episcopal church. 
I went there to worship on the following Sunday, 
but was obliged to leave the building, there 
being, it was stated by the apparitor, no accom- 
modation for strangers, a piece of illiberality that 
I considered very much in keeping with the slave- 
holding opinions of the worshippers who attend 
it. This want of politeness I w T as not, however, 
surprised at, for it is notorious, as has been 
before observed by an able writer, that, excepting 
the Church of Rome, "the members of the un- 
established Church of England — the Protestant 
Episcopalian, are the most bigotted, sectarian, 
and illiberal, in the United States of America. 
Being fully persuaded/' to follow the same writer, 
"that prelatical ordination and the three orders 
are indispensable to their profession, they are, 
like too many of their fellow professors in the 
mother country, deeply dyed with Laudean prin- 
ciples, or that love of formula in religion and 



182 PUSEYISM. 

grasping for power which has so conspicuously 
shown itself among the Oxford tractarians, and 
which, it is to be feared, is gradually under- 
mining Protestant conformity, by gnawing at its 
very heart, in the colleges of Great Britain/' 
Vital piety, or that deep sense of religious duty 
that impels men to avoid the devious paths of 
sin, and to live " near to God/' is, I am inclined 
to believe (and I regret it, as a painful truth), 
by no means common in America. There are, 
however, many pastors who faithfully warn their 
flocks of the dangers of the world, and who 
strenuously advise their hearers to take warning 
lest they be over-captivated with the "Song of 
the Syrens/' These, however, I must say, are 
chiefly in the free states, for I cannot regard 
southern ministers in any other light than phar- 
isaical, while they continue openly (as is their 
constant practice) to support from their pulpits 
the institution that is the main stay of the 
southern states ; I mean slavery. In my inter- 
course with serious individuals with whom I 
came in contact during my stay on the continent 
of America, the doctrines of Dr. Pusey and his 
confederates were often referred to; and although 
I believe "the Association for restoring the an- 
cient powers of the Clergy, and the primary 
rites and usages of the Church," does not acknow- 
ledge the Protestant Episcopalians in America 



FIRE ! 183 

(owing, perhaps, chiefly to the invidious position 
the latter stand in with the state, and the little 
chance of their views being universally embraced 
by them, but partially^ no doubt, to the evan- 
gelical principles of most of the ministers offi- 
ciating in that Church), yet the subject has 
excited much interest there, and the Romish 
propensities of many pastors plainly indicate that 
inherent love of power that invariably, and, it 
may be said, necessarily, developes itself in hier- 
archical institutions — a propensity that ought to 
be closely watched by Protestant lay congrega- 
tions, as being not only innovating and danger- 
ous in its tendency, but calculated to foster that 
superstition which is at once the fundamental 
principle of the faith of the city of the seven 
hills, and the power of that triple-crowned mon- 
ster, Popery. 

I afterwards Avent into a large Independent 
chapel in another part of the town, where I was 
more courteously treated. Here was a very elo- 
quent and noted preacher, a Dr. Groyard, from 
Mobile. He was delivering a very eloquent har- 
angue, interspersed with touches of pro-slavery, 
sentiment alism and rhetorical flourish, the former 
especially directed to the negroes in the gallery, 
when, suddenly, a cry of " Fire ! fire ! " was raised 
in the street. The learned Doctor stood as if elec- 
trified, and the instant after his hearers rushed 



184 AN INEXORABLE LAW. 

pell-mell out of the chapel, amidst the shrieks 
of the females, and the consternation of the men, 
caused, without doubt, by a lurking suspicion ol 
impending evil from the negroes which I have 
before referred to. On ascertaining that the alarm 
was caused by a house being on lire in the vicinity, 
the service was abruptly terminated. 

The following day I continued my perambula- 
tions ; to the left of the episcopal church I have 
already mentioned, and surrounded by umbra- 
geous trees in a park-like enclosure, is the Town- 
hall. I entered this building, where I found a 
bench of magistrates, the mayor of the city being 
amongst them, adjudicating on the cases brought 
before them. These consisted chiefly of negroes 
apprehended in the streets after nine o'clock the 
previous night ; they were in all cases, except 
where their owners paid the fine, sentenced to 
receive from ten to twenty lashes, which were 
administered at once by the city gaoler, in a 
yard at the rear of a building, near which officers 
were in attendance for the purpose. I must 
mention, in explanation, that one of the laws 
passed directly after the insurrection, was to 
prohibit negroes, on any pretence, to be out 
after nine, p.m. At that hour, the city guard, 
armed with muskets and bayonets, patrolled the 
streets, and apprehended every negro, male or 
female, they found abroad. It was a stirring 



JUSTICE FALSELY SO CALLED. 185 

scene, when the drums beat at the guard-house 
in the public square I have before described, pre- 
paratory to the rounds of the soldiers, to witness 
the negroes scouring the streets in all directions, 
to get to their places of abode, many of them in 
great trepidation, uttering ejaculations of terror 
as they ran. This was an inexorable law, and 
punishment or fine was sure to follow its dere- 
liction, no excuse being available, and as the 
owners seldom submitted to pay the fine, the 
slaves were compelled to take the consequences, 
which, in the language that consigned them to 
the cruel infliction, " consisted of from ten to 
twenty lashes, well laid on with a raw-hide/' a 
murderous whip, which draws blood after the first 
few strokes, and is as torturing,. I should imagine, 
as the Russian knout, certainly proving in many 
instances as fatal as that odious instrument. The 
crowning severity of the enactments I have re- 
ferred to, remains, however, to be told. So hei- 
nous in a negro, is the crime of lifting his hanc 
in opposition to a white man in South Carolina, 
that the law adjudges that the offending membei* 
shall be forfeited. This is, or was, quite as inex-t 
orable as the one I have before spoken of, and 
when in Charleston, I frequently, amongst the 
flocks of negroes passing and repassing, saw indi- 
viduals with one hand only. Like the adminis- 
tration of miscalled justice on negroes in all 



186 LEGAL BARBARISM. 

slave-holding states in America, the process was 
summary ; the offender was arrested, brought 
before the bench of sitting magistrates, and on the 
ex parte* statement of his accuser, condemned to 
mutilation, being at once marched out to the rear 
of the building, and the hand lopped off on a block 
fixed there for the purpose. I noticed a block 
and axe myself in the yard of a building near the 
town-hall, and on looking at them closely, saw 
they were stained almost black, with what I have 
little hesitation in saying was human blood. My 
conductor, however, tried to divert my attention 
from the object, and knowing I was an English- 
man, refused to enter on the subject. 

Another of the many cruel laws put in force 
after the emeute of the negroes, was to prohibit 
any coloured person from walking on the pave- 
ments, and forcing all males to salute every w r hite 
they met. These distinctions, although falling 
into disuse, are not even yet abolished, but still, 
with many others equally odious, disgrace the 
Carolinean statute book. I saw several negroes 
from the plantation districts, walking in the road 
instead of on the pavement, in accordance with 
this law, touching their hats to every white 
passer-by ; they were consequently oblige^ to be 
continually lifting their hands to their heads, 

* The writer was assured, when in Charleston, that this was 
the case in five out of every six cases. 



THE ORIGIN OF "YANKEE DOODLE." 187 

for they passed white people at every step. | Al- 
though I believe no punishment is now enforced 
for the omission of this humiliating homage to 
colour, the men I have referred to were doubt- 
less afraid to disregard the ceremony. 

A partiality exists in every part of America 
for music ; indeed, so strongly is this developed, 
that in almost all the towns, and even in some 
hamlets in the western states, subscription bands 
are kept up — these play every evening, when the 
weather admits, in the centre of the public square, 
the citizens the while promenading round with 
their wives and families. 

But, although a decided penchant prevails for 
music, the preference is given by the mass to a 
few ordinary airs, calculated to inspire that 
love of country which every reminiscence of the 
struggle for independence calls forth. The 
favourite air is the so-called national one of 
" Hail, Columbia/' although this is but second 
to the fantastic drollery of "Yankee Doodle;" 
the latter is vociferously called for at all places 
of amusement, and excites in the audience, at 
such places of resort, almost frantic sensations. 
This is the more remarkable, as it was originally 
composed by an Englishman, and, as it is so in- 
timately connected with Americanism, I shall, 
perhaps, be excused for introducing here what 
may be termed its history. 



188 A HOAX 

In the attacks made upon the French posts 
in America, in 1755, those against Niagara and 
Frontenac were made by Governor Shirley, of 
Massachusetts, and General Jackson, of New 
York. Their army during the summer lay on 
the eastern bank of the Hudson, a little south 
of Albany. Early in June, the troops of the 
eastern provinces began to pour in company 
after company, and such an assemblage never 
before thronged together on such an occasion. "It 
would have relaxed the gravity of an anchorite/' 
says the historian, " to see the descendants of the 
Puritans marching through the streets of the 
ancient city, and taking their stations on the 
left of the British army — some with long coats, 
and others with no coats at all, and with colours 
as various as the rainbow ; some with their hair 
cropped like the army of Cromwell, and others 
with wigs, the locks of which floated with grace 
round their shoulders. Their march, their ac- 
coutrements, and the whole arrangement of the 
troops, furnished matter of amusement to the 
British army. The music played the airs of two 
centuries ago ; and the tout ensemble, upon the 
whole, exhibited a sight to the wondering stran- 
gers to which they had been unaccustomed." 

Among the club of wits that belonged to the 
British army, there was a Doctor Shackburg 
attached to the staff, who combined with his 



AND ITS DESTINY. 189 

knowledge of surgery the skill and talent of a 
musician. To please the new-comers, he com- 
posed a tune, and, with much gravity, recom- 
mended it to the officers as one of the most 
celebrated airs of martial music. The joke took, 
to the no small amusement of the British. Brother 
Jonathan exclaimed, it was "nation fine;" and 
in a few days, nothing was heard in the pro- 
vincial camp but the air of " Yankee Doodle/' 

Little did the author, in his composition, then 
suppose, that an air, made for the purpose of 
levity and ridicule, should be marked for such 
high destinies. In twenty years from that time, 
the national march — now universally recognized 
by the patriots — inspired the heroes of Bunker's 
Hill ; and, in less than thirty, Lord Cornwallis 
and his army marched into the American lines 
to the tune of " Yankee Doodle/' 



190 AVHAT TO EXPECT. 



CHAPTER VII. 



" Woe worth the hour when it is crime 

To plead the poor dumb bondman's cause, 
When all that makes the heart sublime, 
The glorious throbs that conquer time, 
Are traitors to our cruel laws." — Lowell. 

The general appearance of the majority of the 
coloured people in the streets of Charleston 
denoted abject fear and timidity, some of them 
as I passed looking with servile dread at me (as 
they did at almost every one who happened to 
pass), so that I could read in many of their looks 
a suspicion of interference, which, commiserating 
their condition as I did, was quite distressing. 

It is impossible to form a correct estimate of 
what the perpetuators of slavery have to expect, 
if once the coloured population obtain a dominant 
position. The acknowledged gradual depopula- 
tion of the whites in the slave states, through 



AUCTIONEERING. 191 

sickness, exhaustion of the land, and consequent 
emigration, united with other causes, there is no 
doubt will eventually result in a great preponder- 
ance of coloured people, who, aroused by the 
iniquitous treatment they undergo, will rise 
under some resolute leader, and redress their 
wrongs. I was quite struck to see in Charleston 
such a disproportion of the colours, and, with- 
out exaggerating, I can say, that almost if not 
quite three-fourths of those I met in the streets 
were, if not actually of the negro race, tinged in 
a greater or less degree with the hue. 

Pursuing my perambulations, I came to the 
slave and general cotton place of vendue, to the 
left of the General Post-office, which building 
is a very substantial edifice of stone. Here a 
dozen or twenty auctioneers were loudly holding 
forth to the assembled crowds, and cracking up 
their wares in New York style. The most inde- 
scribable scene of bustle and confusion prevailed, 
the whole street being covered with open bales 
and boxes of goods. In one part of the street 
was a slave warehouse, and advertisements w^ere 
placarded outside of the particulars of the various 
lots to be offered for competition, and now on 
view. As the privilege of viewing in this in- 
stance was confined to those who possessed 
tickets, I did not apply for one, as I knew that 
the wish would be attributed to curiosity, and 



192 AN UNTKUSTY OVESEER. 

possibly a worse construction be put upon it, 
through my being a stranger in the place. 

Passing onwards through the assembled throng, 
I got into a more secluded part of the city, and 
came upon a large burial-ground, in which many 
of the monuments erected to the memory of the 
dead were of a very expensive description. One 
in particular attracted my notice ; this, on in- 
quiry of a gentlemanly-looking man, who, like 
myself, was inclined to " meditate among the 
tombs, " I ascertained had been erected by the 
relatives of a planter, who had resided in an 
adjoining state, but who had several cotton plan- 
tations within ten miles of Charleston ; these 
he occasionally visited, but in general confided 
to the care of an overseer, who lived with 
his family on one of them. The season anterior 
to his last visit had been a very unpropitious 
one, and he was much dissatisfied with the 
management. To prevent a recurrence of this 
loss, and, under the strong impression that the 
hands were not worked as they should be, he re- 
solved to inspect the plantations himself, and 
administer some wholesome discipline in 'propria 
persona ; for this purpose, he visited one of the 
plantations, intending afterwards to proceed to 
the others in rotation. It so happened that he 
arrived when not expected ; and, finding his 
overseer absent, and many of the hands not as 



DEVOTEDNESS OF NEGKOES. 193 

closely engaged as he wished, he became violently 
enraged. Summoning the overseer, he ordered 
all hands in front of the house to witness a 
punishment, and causing eight or ten of those 
whom he pointed out to be tied up at once and 
well whipped, stood by the while in uncontrol- 
lable anger to give directions. In the midst of the 
scene, and while urging greater severity, he was 
seized with a fit of apoplexy, which was of such 
a nature, that it at once closed his career, and he 
died instantaneously. Directly the man fell, the 
negroes collected round him and uttered cries 
and lamentations, and the poor wretch who w T as 
at the moment the victim of his brutality, on 
being untied, which was immediately done, joined 
in it. Notwithstanding that my companion had a 
decided leaning towards the extinction of slavery, 
(although he started various objections to its abo- 
lition,) I was quite inclined to believe his relation, 
having, when in Florida, met with a somewhat 
similar instance of the devotedness of the negro 
race, in an old woman who was bitterly bewail- 
ing the loss of her deceased mistress. The latter 
was an English lady, but not over kind to her, 
and reflected no credit on her countrywomen. 
The poor creature in touching strains enlarged 
upon her beauty and accomplishments, but when 
I questioned her as to her treatment of the 
negroes in general belonging to the estates, would 

o 



194 A COLOURED GENTLEMAN. 

say little on the subject, and shook her head ; in- 
deed it was plain that, like most females living in 
the south, she was a pampered worldling, entirely 
engrossed by principles of self-interest, and little 
regarding the welfare of her dependents, if not, 
as I have before observed, very severe towards 
them. She died prematurely, from the effects of 
one of those virulent fevers, that in southern 
latitudes are so often fatal to the inhabitants, 
especially to those who have been nurtured in 
Europe. Her encoffined remains were shipped 
on board a vessel, to be conveyed to England for 
burial, in accordance with her expressed wish. 
When the poor creature came to that part of 
her piteous tale, when, as she called her, her 
" beautiful angel of a mistress " was put in the 
coffin, and the estate hands were called in to take 
a last view of her (a custom in vogue there some- 
times), she was overpowered with grief, and her 
utterance was so choked, that she could scarcely 
proceed. 

During my stay in Charleston, I became ac- 
quainted with a gentleman of colour, w^ho fol- 
lowed a lucrative business as a dealer of some 
kind, and who had formerly been a slave. The in- 
troduction arose in rather a singular way, it being 
through a proposition made to open a school for 
the education of coloured children, in which I 
took an interest. 



TOUSSAINT i/oUVERTURE. 195 

Great opposition was offered to the scheme by 
the white rulers of the place, who declared the 
project illegal, the enactments passed subsequent 
and prior to the insurrection stringently forbid- 
ding it, or any attempt to impart secular know- 
ledge to the slaves. Notwithstanding the violent 
threats used to prevent it, a meeting was how- 
ever convened to be held at the house of the 
gentleman referred to, and which I resolved, 
though not unaccompanied with danger to my 
person, to take an active part in. I accordingly 
went to his home on the evening appointed ; this 
was a spacious house, furnished in sumptuous 
style, with extensive premises adjoining, con- 
tiguous to the north end of the levee. I noticed 
that the walls were hung with good oil paintings 
gorgeously framed, principally family portraits, 
but the most prominent in position was that of 
the unfortunate Haytian chief, Toussaint I/Ouver- 
ture, whose cruel end, at the instigation of the 
vindictive Bonaparte, will for ever reflect shame 
on the French name as long as a sense of justice 
and love of virtue and probity exists in the bosom 
of mankind. Far be it from me to trample on 
the name of one whom retributive justice has 
consigned to the dust, but the cruelty of Napo- 
leon towards this magnanimous prince, and his 
final barbarity in consigning him to a damp dun- 
geon in a fastness amongst the Alps, where he 



196 A NEGRO-EDUCATIONAL MEETING. 

perished in exile from his subjects and family 
after ten months' miserable endurance of the 
hardships wrongfully imposed on him, almost 
causes a feeling of exultation at the downfall of 
a despot, who, aiming at the sovereignty of the 
world, scrupled not to sacrifice virtue and good 
faith at the shrine of ambition. The fate of both 
chiefs was similar, for both perished in captivity 
— the one the victim, perhaps, of inordinate am- 
bition, the other of unscrupulous avarice and 
envious malignity. The misfortunes of Toussaint 
I/Ouverture have indeed with justice been pro- 
nounced the " history of the negro race/' for, 
in almost every instance where coloured men 
have pushed themselves above the common level, 
they have incurred the envy of white men, and, 
in too many instances, have been crushed by 
their overbearing tyranny. 

The meeting was conducted with religious de- 
corum, most, if not all, of the coloured gentlemen 
present being members of the Wesley an con- 
nection. I was pleased with the temperate spirit 
in which their wrongs were discussed ; and, after 
drawing up the rules, forming a committee, 
and arranging other necessary preliminaries, the 
meeting broke up. 

On reaching my hotel on my return, I was at 
once waited upon by the landlord, who, in cer- 
tainly a respectful manner, informed me that 



MOB LAW. 197 

the interest I had the day before incautiously 
expressed regarding the school, had led to my 
being watched to the house where the meeting 
was held ; and that, to avoid the unpleasantness 
which would result from my continuing to take 
any steps in the matter, and which might ensue, 
he said, from the suspicions excited, he strongly 
advised that I should the next day address a 
letter to the editor of the principal newspaper 
in the city, repudiating all connection with a 
movement calculated, he said, to disturb the 
public mind, and, perhaps, cause disturbance. 
This I refused to do, but told him I did not in- 
tend to figure prominently in the matter, and 
that my stay in the city would be very limited. 
He then related several instances of mob law, 
which had been enacted within the twelve 
months preceding, which, he said, were quite 
necessary to maintain southern rights, and which 
he did not fail to let me know he fully concurred 
in. After this hint, conveyed, I must say, in a 
friendly spirit, whatever my private opinion was 
as to the occasion of it, I mingled, during the 
remainder of my stay, very little with the fre- 
quenters of his establishment — a policy which 
I considered necessary from personal considera- 
tions ; and, owing to this cautious behaviour, I 
was not afterwards interfered with, though often 
eyed with suspicion. 



198 PERSECUTION OF A FREE NEGRO. 

The school was opened during my stay, but 
continued so but a short time, the virulent con- 
duct of the constables, supported by some of the 
citizens and the civil authorities, compelling its 
discontinuance. This is not to be wondered at, 
when it is remembered that the old statute law 
of South Carolina prohibits the education of 
negroes, bond or free, under a penalty of fine 
and imprisonment ; and, although before the 
recent emeute it was falling into disuse, that 
event revived its enforcement with ancient 
malignity. 

The free negro gentleman, at whose house the 
preliminaries for opening the school referred to 
were gone through, informed me, on a subsequent 
occasion, that the constant vexations and annoy- 
ances he was subjected to, owing to the prejudice 
in the minds of southern people regarding colour, 
would compel him to relinquish his business, and 
proceed either to Canada or to the free states. 
He deplored the alternative much, as he had 
been born and bred a slave in Carolina, and, 
by untiring assiduity, had saved money enough 
to emancipate himself and his wife ; " In fact/' 
he added, " I feel this is my country, and leaving 
it will come hard/' He had a numerous family, 
which he maintained in great respectability, and 
his business being a profitable one made him 
more reluctant to abandon it and the advantages 



THE MARINE PARADE. 199 

that otherwise would attend his continuance in 
Charleston. He hospitably entertained me at his 
home, and appeared highly gratified at meeting 
with a white man who felt disposed to regard 
him with equality. 

After dining at his house one day, he took me 
a ride round the suburbs of the city, which I 
noticed were flat and exceedingly uninteresting. 
We ret urned byway of the Marine Parade, which 
is certainly a chef d'oeuvre of its kind. This is on 
the south side of the city, and commands a mag- 
nificent sea-view. It is raised far above the sea, 
and laid out with carriage-drives and paths for 
pedestrians. Far out, looking towards Cape Hat- 
teras, is a fort on an island ; this is always gar- 
risoned by a detachment of U. S. troops, and of 
late years has been used as a receptacle for those 
daring chiefs among the Indians, who, by their 
indomitable courage, have been the terror of the 
United States frontier. Here that hero, Oceola, 
chief of the Seminoles, died not long before, in 
captivity, from excessive grief, caused by the 
treachery of certain American officers, who, 
under a pretended truce, seized him and his 
attendant warriors. Below us in the bay we 
could see the fins of several sharks, ploughing 
the waves in search of prey ; while the constant 
sailing to and fro of Cuba fruit -boats, laden with 
bananas, pawpaws, pine-apples, and every luxury 



200 INFRA DIG. 

that and contiguous islands afford, enlivened the 
scene, which altogether was one of extraordinary 
beauty. 

There was a large assemblage of ladies and 
gentlemen promenading, and, as I rode with my 
friend, I had some very furtive glances from the 
crowd, which were intended, no doubt, to remind 
me that my keeping such company was infra dig., 
if not open to suspicion. There was in truth no 
little hazard in riding about in public with a man 
against whose acquaintance I had a short time 
before been cautioned, and I felt my position 
rather an uncomfortable one. 

Had some of the young blood of Charleston 
been up, there is little doubt but that I must 
have left the place sans ceremonie. Possessed of 
a natural urbanity, or, what in elevated society 
amongst white people, would be termed true 
politeness, the manner of the well-bred negro 
is prepossessing. This was very remarkable in 
my coloured friend, who was well informed, and 
possessed a refinement and intelligence I had 
never before met with in any of his race. On 
the subject of enslavement he would at first 
venture few observations, confining himself to 
those inconveniences and annoyances that affected 
him individually ; he, however, became, after a 
time, more communicative. 

On the whole, at first, I was not a little 



PUBLIC CORRECTION OF A NEGRO. 201 

apprehensive that my coloured acquaintance was 
under the impression that my friendship was not 
sincere, although he did not say as much in 
his conversation ; the impression, however, soon 
left me, after a further intimacy. I considered 
then, and do now, that the suspicion was quite 
excusable, the Jesuitical practices and underhand 
trickery descended to by the white population 
in the slave states, in order to ascertain how 
individuals stand affected, are so numerous, that 
the coloured people are obliged to be wary of 
those they either suspect, or of whom, being 
strangers, they know little. 

I remember well, whilst riding with him on 
the occasion I have already referred to, we drove 
past a white man on horseback, who (as is common 
in Charleston), was correcting his negro in the 
street. The poor fellow was writhing under the 
cruel infliction of a flagellation with a raw-hide, 
and rent the air with his cries. This only in- 
creased the rage of his master, who seemed to 
take delight in striking his face and ears. I 
eagerly watched the scene, and, as we passed, 
leaned over the back of the gig. My companion, 
fearing, I suppose, lest the sight might provoke 
in me some exclamation, and thus get us into 
notice, nudged me violently with his elbow, say- 
ing at the same time, hurriedly, " Don't heed, 
don't heed/' My blood was getting hot, and but 



202 DEPRESSION. 

for my companion, my passion would, in all 
probability, have got the better of my discretion, 
and I should without remedy have been involved 
in a dispute, if not immediately apprehended. 
As we rode on, I adverted to this barefaced 
exhibition of tyranny in an open thoroughfare, 
which, I remarked, was sufficient proof of the 
iniquity of the system, in spite of the assertions 
made by the southerners to the contrary. In 
reply to this, all my companion remarked was, 
" Did you never see that done before ? " My 
answer was, I had seen negroes cruelly treated 
on estates, and elsewhere, but that this scene 
was the more revolting from its being enacted 
in the open highway. Seeing that he was anxious 
to avoid the subject, and that the observations 
he had made were drawn from him by my remarks, 
I remained silent, and, wrapped in deep reflec- 
tions on the outrage we had witnessed, at length 
reached his dwelling. The occurrence I suppose 
somewhat affected my spirits, for soon after we 
got into the drawing-room, no one else being 
present, my friend addressed me, no doubt ob- 
serving my depression, nearly as follows. " Sir, 
you seem to have a tender compassion for my 
poor countrymen ; would to Grod white men were 
all as feeling here. The system is an accursed 
one, but what can we do but bear it patiently? 
Every hand seems against us, and we dare not 



VULTURES IN CHARLESTON. 203 

speak for ourselves/' I told him I deeply sym- 
pathised with his oppressed countrymen, and 
lived in hope that before long the public mind 
in America would be aroused from its apathy, 
and the accumulated wrongs of the race be re- 
dressed. His only reply was, " God grant it, I 
hope so too/' 

In Charleston there exist several charitable 
institutions, but these, I believe, with only one 
exception, are for the benefit of poor white people. 
The innate benevolence of the human heart is 
thus, in the midst of dire oppression, wont to 
hold its sway, notwithstanding the poisonous 
influences that surround. But the pro-slavery 
business neutralizes these would-be benefactors, 
and taints all their endeavours, under the cloak 
of benevolence, to remove the odium it so justly 
incurs. " Liberate your slaves, and then I will 
talk to you about religion and charity/' were the 
emphatic words of an eminent northern divine 
in his correspondence with the committee of a 
benevolent institution in the south, some years 
ago, and the admonition speaks as forcibly now 
as it did then. 

As you walk the streets of Charleston, rows 
of greedy vultures, with sapient look, sit on the 
parapets of the houses, watching for offal. These 
birds are great blessings in warm climates, and 
in Carolina a fine of ten dollars is inflicted for 



204 INDOLENCE. 

wantonly destroying them. They appeared to be 
quite conscious of their privileges, and sailed 
down from the house-tops into the streets, where 
they stalked about, hardly caring to move out 
of the way of the horses and carriages passing. 
They were of an eagle-brown colour, and many 
of them appeared well conditioned, even to obesity. 
At night scores of dogs collect in the streets, and 
yelp and bark in the most annoying manner. 
This it is customary to remedy by a gun being 
fired from a window at the midnight interlopers, 
when they disperse in great terror. I should 
remark that this is a common nuisance in warm 
latitudes. Some of these animals live in the 
wilds, and, like jackals, steal into the towns at 
night to eke out a scanty subsistence. At first 
my rest was greatly disturbed by their noisy 
yelpings, but I soon became accustomed to the 
inconvenience, and thought little of it. 

The warmth of the climate induces great lassi- 
tude and indisposition to exertion, alias in- 
dolence. I began to experience this soon after 
arriving in the south. This, which in England 
would be called laziness, is encouraged by the 
most trifling offices being performed by slaves. 
The females in particular give way to this inert- 
ness, and active women are seldom to be met 
with, the wives of men in affluent circumstances 
being in general like pampered children, and 



MATRIMONIAL LAT1TUD1NARIANISM. 205 

suffering dreadfully from ennui. On one occasion 
an English gentleman at Charleston, with whom 
I became acquainted, and whose hospitality I 
shall never forget, when conversing on the sub- 
ject, addressed me thus : " Good, active wives 
are seldom to be met with in this state, amongst 
the natives; I may say, hardly ever; the females 
are nurtured in indolence, and in seeking what 
they term a settlement, look more to the man's 
means than the likelihood of living happily with 
him. There is no disguising it — the considera- 
with them is a sine qua non. Few girls would 
refuse a man who possessed a goodly number 
of slaves, though they were sure his affections 
would be shared by some of the best-looking 
of the females amongst them, and his conduct 
towards the remainder that of a very demon/' 
These sentiments I very soon ascertained to be 
in no way libellous. A southern wife, if she is 
prodigally furnished with dollars to "go shopping/' 
apparently considers it no drawback to her happi- 
ness if some brilliant mulatto or quadroon woman 
ensnares her husband. Of course there are excep- 
tions, but the patriarchal usage is so engrafted in 
society there, that it elicits little notice or com- 
ment. Nor, from what I gleaned, are the ladies 
themselves immaculate, as may be inferred from 
the occasional quadroon aspect of their progeny. 
The Jews are a very numerous and influential 



206 JEWS IN CHARLESTON. 

body in Charleston, and monopolize many of its 
corporate honours. They were described as very 
haughty and captious ; this, however, is saying 
no more of the stock of Israel than is observable 
all over the world, when they are in prosperous 
circumstances, although, when this is not the 
case, perhaps none of the human family are so 
abject and servile, not excepting slaves them- 
selves. In process of time, these people bid fair 
to concentrate in themselves most of the wealth 
and influence of Charleston. If their persever- 
ance (which is here indomitable) should attain 
this result, they will be in pretty much the same 
position there that Pharaoh occupied over their 
race in Egypt in olden time, and, if reports 
speak true, will wield the sceptre of authority 
over their captives in a somewhat similar style. 
Avarice is the besetting sin of the Israelite, and 
here his slaves are taxed beyond endurance. To 
exact the utmost from his labour is the constant 
aim, and I was informed that many of the slaves 
belonging to Jews were sent out, and compelled 
on the Saturday night to bring in a much larger 
sum than it was reasonably possible the poor 
creatures could earn, and if not successful, they 
were subjected to the most cruel treatment. 

Not long after my arrival in Charleston, I 
several times met a young coloured man, who 
was of so prepossessing an appearance, that I felt 



FAMILIARITY WITH A SLAVE. 207 

desirous to become acquainted with him, and, 
as I was at a loss to find my way to the residence 
of the mayor, a good opportunity one day offered, 
and I addressed him. He very courteously took 
me to the street in which the house was situated, 
and we talked on general topics as we went — in 
the course of which he stated, he was saving 
money for his ransom, and in two years intended 
to proceed to Montreal, in Canada. I could see, 
however, that the free manner in which we con- 
versed attracted the attention of three or four 
individuals as we passed them — these would stop 
as if to satisfy their curiosity, some even took 
the trouble to watch us out of sight ; looking 
back, I several times saw one more impertinent- 
looking than some others eyeing us intently, and 
once I fancied I saw him turn as if to overtake 
us. This curiosity I had often perceived before, 
but, as disagreeable results might follow, I in- 
variably made a practice to take no notice of it 
when in the company of a coloured individual. 
A smile played upon the features of my dusky 
companion, as I turned to observe the inquisitive 
fellows I have referred to ; perhaps I was taken 
for a negro-stealer, but, as I treated my companion 
with equality, I was most likely set down as one 
of those dangerous personages, who, through zeal 
in the cause of emancipation, sometimes pene- 
trate into the slave districts, and are accused 



208 A DEGRADING PHRASE. 

(with what degree of justice I cannot tell) of 
infusing into the minds of the slaves discontented 
notions and agrarian principles. 

As I met, on the occasion I have just referred 
to, an individual who knew I had felt an interest 
in endeavouring to establish the school for the 
education of negro children, the result of which 
I have already mentioned, I was apprehensive 
that the contretemps would have exposed me to 
the unpleasantness of at least being shunned 
afterwards as a man entertaining principles in- 
imical to southern interests — and, however reso- 
lute I felt to pursue an independent course while 
I remained in Charleston, I could not shake off 
a fear I vaguely entertained of a public recog- 
nition by a deeply prejudiced and ignorant popu- 
lace, who, once set on, do not hesitate to proceed 
to disagreeable extremes. This fear was enhanced 
in no little degree by the operation I had wit- 
nessed, of the tarring and feathering process 
practised by enraged citizens in the Missouri 
country, which I have before described. 

The most degrading phrase that can be applied 
in the south to those white individuals who sym- 
pathize in the wrongs inflicted on the African 
race, I soon found to be, that "he associates 
with niggers/' Thus a kind-hearted individual 
at once " loses caste " among his fellow-citizens, 
and, invidious though it certainly is, many slave- 



ABSOLUTE POWER OE SLAVE-OWNERS. 209 

owners are deterred by this consideration, blended 
w r ith a politic regard for their own safety, from 
exercising that benevolence towards their depen- 
dents which they sincerely feel ; placed, as it were, 
under a sort of social ban, such men artfully con- 
ceal their sentiments from the public, and, by a 
more lenient treatment of their own hands, quiet 
their consciences ; while, at the same time, they 
blunt their sense of what is honest, upright, just, 
and manly. Instances have occasionally occurred 
where men of correct principles have so far suc- 
cumbed to this sense of duty, as to liberate their 
slaves. These are, however, rare occurrences, and, 
when they do happen, are usually confined to men 
of sterling religious principles, who, like that 
great exception, the respectable class of people 
called Quakers, in America, refuse, from a con- 
viction of the enormity of the evil, to recognize 
as members those who hold or traffic in slaves. 

It is through the influence of such men that 
the iniquities of the system become exposed to 
public view, and remedies are sometimes, in 
flagrant cases of cruelty, applied. The legisla- 
tures of the several slave states, however, have 
given such absolute dominion, by a rigorous code 
of laws, to the owner, that the greatest enor- 
mities may be committed almost with impunity, 
or at least with but a remote chance of justice 
having its legitimate sway. 

p 



210 LOUNGERS AT HOTELS. 

The mass of slave-owners are interested in 
concealing enormities committed by their fellows, 
and are backed by a venal press, which, whether 
bribed or not (and there is every reason to sus- 
pect that this is often the case), puts such a con- 
struction on outrage, by garbled reports, as to 
turn the tide of sympathy from the victim to the 
perpetrator. No editor, possessing the least leaven 
of anti-slavery principles, would be patronized ; 
and it not infrequently happens that such men 
are mobbed and driven perforce to leave the 
slave, for the more northern or free, states. Here 
they stand a better chance, but, in many in- 
stances, the prejudice, it is said, follows their 
course, and southern influence occasions their 
bankruptcy or non-success. 

The practice, so common in the slave states, 
of the citizens congregating at the bars of hotels 
or cafes in the towns and cities to while away 
the time, renders attendance at such places the 
readiest means of ascertaining the state of the 
public mind on any engrossing subject, opinions 
being here freely discussed, not, however, without 
bias and anger ; on the contrary, the practice is 
most sectarian, and frequently involves deadly 
feuds and personal encounters, these latter being 
of every-day occurrence. Ever since I had been 
in the southern states, my attention had been 
attracted to the swarms of well-dressed loungers 



THE PLACE FOR NEWS. 211 

at cafes and hotels. At first, like many other 
travellers, I was deluded by the notion that these 
idlers were men of independent means, but 
my mind was soon disabused of this fallacy. I 
ascertained that the greater portion of these 
belong to that numerous class in America known 
as sporting gentlemen ; in plainer terms, gam- 
blers. Some of these men had belonged to the 
higher walks of life; these were the more "re- 
tiring few " who (probably through a sense of 
shame not quite extinguished) felt rather dis- 
posed to shrink from than to attract attention. 
The majority of these idlers were impudent- 
looking braggarts, who, with jaunty air and cox- 
combical show of superiority, endeavoured to en- 
force their own opinions, and to silence those 
of every one else. 

There was also another class of frequenters 
at such places ; this consisted of tradesmen who 
pass much of their time hanging about at such 
resorts, to the great detriment of their individual 
affairs ; and, lastly, such travellers as might be 
stopping in the town, who, through ennui and 
inveterate habit, had left their hotels, and saun- 
tered "up town" (as they call gadding about), 
to hear the news of the day. 

Soon ascertaining that such places were the 
best, and, excepting the public prints, the only 
resort to ascertain the latest intelligence, and 



212 LAX MORALITY. 

to collect information respecting the movements 
of the black population, and the company, how- 
ever exceptionable, being termed there respect- 
able, I adopted the plan, on several successive 
evenings, of quietly smoking a cigar and listening 
to passing observations and remarks. Some of 
these were disgusting enough ; so much so, that 
I will not offend my readers by repeating them. 
Suffice it to say, that any individual possessing 
the slightest pretensions to the name of gentle- 
man, in any hotel I had visited in England, on 
indulging in the indecorous language I heard at 
these places, would, by a very summary process, 
have met with ejectment, without ceremony. 
Here, however, a laxity of moral feeling prevails, 
that stifles all sense of propriety ; and scurrility, 
obscene language, and filthy jests, of which the 
coloured population are, I suppose, per force of 
habit, the principal butts, form the chief attrac- 
tions of such places of resort to their vitiated 
frequenters. 

In the course of these visits I was present 
at some angry altercations ; one of these referred 
to the recent visit of an individual who was 
termed by the disputants an " incendiary aboli- 
tionist/' and who, it appeared, had been detected 
in the act of distributing tracts, which had been 
published at Salem, in Massachusetts, exposing 
the disabilities the African race were labouring 



SOUTHERN RIGHTS. 213 

under. Extracts from one of these tracts were 
read, and appeared very much to increase the 
violence of the contending parties, one of whom 
insisted that the publication contained nothing 
but what might be read by every slave in the 
sacred Scriptures, and that, therefore, it could 
not be classed as dangerous, although he ad- 
mitted that it contained notions of "human 
rights " that were calculated to imbue the mind 
of the " niggers " with unbecoming ideas. These 
sentiments did not at all accord with those of 
the company, and several expressions of doubt 
as to the soundness of the speaker's own pro- 
slavery principles, together with the increasing 
excitement, caused him to withdraw from the 
contest. His immediate antagonist, who was evi- 
dently the leading man on the occasion, enlarged 
on the danger attending the sufferance of such 
men at large in the slave states, and proceeded, 
with great volubility, to quote various passages 
from the Black Code to show that the Legislature 
had contemplated the intrusion of such pestilent 
fellows, and had, in fact, given full power to 
remedy the evil, if the citizens chose to exercise 
it ; and went on to observe, that the rights of 
southern people were now-a-days invaded on every 
hand, and it behoved them to stand in their own 
defence , his advice, he said, was, if the municipal 
authorities let the fellow go, to form a committee 



214 SOCIAL POLICE. 

of justice to adjudicate on the case, and if it was 
considered conducive to the public weal, to ad- 
minister salutary punishment. This proposal was 
uproariously applauded, and four of the citizens 
present, with the last speaker for chairman, were 
named on the spot to watch the case. " And 
now/' added this gentleman, "well have a gin 
sling round for success/' I heard the day follow- 
ing that the individual who was the subject of 
the foregoing proceedings, was accused before the 
mayor, who dismissed the case with a caution, 
advising him to leave the city with all dispatch, 
to avoid disagreeable consequences. This the 
man, by the aid of a constable, managed to do, 
that functionary, no doubt for a consideration, 
taking him to the city prison, and locking him 
up until nightfall, when he was assisted to leave 
the place, disguised as a soldier. This, I was 
informed by a friend, to whom I afterwards 
related it, was one of those commotions that 
occur almost daily in southern towns and cities. . 

Such lawless frequenters of hotels, taverns, and 
cafes, form a kind of social police, and scarcely a 
stranger visits the place without his motives for 
the visit being canvassed, and his business often 
exposed, much to his great annoyance and incon- 
venience. 

So accustomed do American travellers in the 
south appear, to this system of internal sur- 



PAUL PRY IN AMERICA. 2.15 

veillance, that I several times noticed strangers 
at the hotel or cafe counters openly explaining 
the object of their visits, and if there is nothing 
to conceal, however annoying the alternative 
appears, I am convinced the policy is not bad, 
a host of suspicions being silenced by such a 
course. 

In my travels on the whole route from New 
York to Charleston, I discovered a most unjustifi- 
able and impertinent disposition to pry into the 
business of others. If I was questioned once, I 
am sure I was at least fifty times, by my fellow- 
travellers from time to time as to my motive for 
visiting America, and my intended proceedings. 
I found, however, that a certain reserve was an 
efficient remedy. Captain Waterton, of South 
American celebrity, as an ornithologist, and who 
visited North America in his travels, mentions 
that if you confide your affairs and intentions 
when questioned, the Americans reciprocate that 
confidence by relating their own. My own ex- 
perience, however, did not corroborate this view 
of the case, for, though loquacious in the ex- 
treme, and gifted, so that to use a Yankee phrase, 
they would "talk a dog's hind-leg off/' they 
are in general cautious not to divulge their 
secrets. To say the least of it, the habit of 
prying into the business of others, is one totally 
unbecoming a well-ordered state of society, 



216 ANGRY ALTERCATIONS. 

which the American, speaking generally, is de- 
cidedly not. It is extremely annoying, from the 
unpleasant feeling it excites, that you are sus- 
pected if not watched (this applies forcibly to 
the slave districts) ; and it is a habit that has 
arisen purely from the incongruity of society at 
large on the American continent, and a want of 
that subdivision of class that exists in Europe. 

During my visits to the various hotels while I 
remained in Charleston, for the purpose of collect- 
ing information, I was several times interrogated 
in a barefaced manner by the visitors who 
frequent those places, as to my politics, and 
especially as to my principles in regard to the 
institution of slavery ; now, as I was not un- 
aware that my intimacy with the gentleman of 
colour, which I have already referred to, had got 
abroad, I was obliged to be extremely guarded in 
my replies on such occasions. It was on one of 
these that I felt myself in great hazard, for two 
individuals in the company were discussing with 
much energy, the question of amalgamation (that 
is, marriage, contracted between black and white 
men and women), and I was listening intently to 
their altercation, when suddenly one of them, 
eyeing me with malicious gaze, no doubt having 
noticed my attention to the colloquy, said, 

" Your opinion, stranger, on this subject ; I 
guess you understand it torrably well, as you 



ESCAPE ER0M AN UNPLEASANT ARGUMENT. 217 

seem to be pretty hard on B 's eldest daugh- 
ter/' This unexpected sally rather alarmed me, 
for the name he mentioned was that of my 
coloured friend I have before alluded to, and 
whose daughter I had only met once, and that at 
her father's house. 

I scarcely knew what to reply, but thought it 
best to put on a bold face, so facing the man, I 
thanked him with much irony for the inuendo, 
and said, it was a piece of impudence I thought 
very much like him from what I had overheard. 

This was said in a resolute tone, and the fellow 
quailed before it, his reply being, " Now stranger, 
don't get angry, I saw you the other day at 

B 's house, and could not tell what to make 

of it, but I hope you don't think that I was in 
arnest." 

I replied to this, that I knew best what busi- 
ness I had at B — 's house, and that his plan was 
to mind his own business. I then left him, 
apparently highly indignant, but in fact glad to 
make my escape. Like bullies all the world over, 
the southern ones are cowards ; there is, however, 
great danger here in embroiling yourself with 
such characters, the pistol and bowie knife being 
instantly resorted to if the quarrel becomes serious. 
I saw this braggart on several occasions after- 
wards, but he evidently kept aloof, and was 
disinclined to venture in the part of the room I 



218 FREE EXPRESSION OF OPINION. 

occupied. I ascertained that he kept a dry goods 
store in King-street, and was a boisterous fellow, 
often involved in quarrels. 

The discussion on amalgamation, which is a 
very vexed one, was again introduced on a sub- 
sequent occasion ; a planter from the north of 
the state having (as is sometimes the case) sold 
off everything he possessed, and removed to the 
State of Maine, taking with him a young quadroon 
woman, with the intention of making her his 
lawful wife, and living there retired. After the 
expression of a variety of opinions as to what 
this man deserved, some being of opinion that the 
subject ought to be mooted in the legislature at 
"Washington — others, that his whole effects ought 
to be escheated, for the benefit of the public 
treasury — and by far the greater number that 
he ought to be summarily dealt with at the 
hands of the so-considered outraged citizens, 
which, in other language, meant "lynched," — it 
was stated, by a very loquacious Yankee-looking 
fellow present, who made himself prominent in 
the discussion, that it was the opinion of the 
company, that any man marrying a woman with 
negro blood in her veins, should be hanged, as a 
traitor to southern interests and a bad citizen. 
This sentiment was loudly applauded, and, had 
the unfortunate subject of it been in Charleston 
or near it, he would, in all probability, have been 



CAPTURED RUNAWAYS. 219 

called to account. To me it appeared remarkable, 
that men, who are always boasting of the well- 
ordered institutions of their country (slavery 
being a very important one, be it remembered), 
should be ever ready to set aside all law, and, 
as it were, by ex parte evidence alone, inflict 
summary vengeance on the offender ; I was, how- 
ever, always of opinion, when amongst them, that 
four-fifths of the men would rejoice if all law 
were abrogated, and the passions of the people 
allowed to govern the country, thus constituting 
themselves judges in their own case, and tramp- 
ling under foot every semblance of justice, equity, 
and common propriety. As it is, in many parts 
of the Union, the judges and magistrates are 
notoriously awed by the people, and the most 
perfidious wretches are suffered to escape the 
hands of justice. A full confirmation of this is 
to be found in the frequent outrages against law 
and order reported in the newspapers, and which 
there elicit little regard. 

Walking for a stroll, a day or two after, in the 
vicinity of the Marine-promenade, I saw a strange- 
looking cavalcade approaching. Two armed over- 
seers were escorting five negroes, recently cap- 
tured, to the city gaol. The poor creatures were 
so heavily shackled, that they could walk but 
slowly, and their brutal conductors kept urging 
them on, chiefly by coarse language and oaths, 



220 

now and then accompanied by a severe stroke 
with a slave-whip carried by one of them. The 
recovered fugitives looked very dejected, and 
were, no doubt, brooding over the consequences 
of their conduct. The elder of the party, a stout 
fellow of about forty-five years old, of very sullen 
look, had a distinct brand on his forehead of 
the initials S. T. R. I afterwards inquired what 
these brand-marks signified, supposing, naturally, 
that they were the initials of the name of his 
present or former owner. My informant, who 
was a by-stander, stated that he was, no doubt, 
an incorrigibly bad fellow, and that the initials 
S. T. R. were often used in such cases. I inquired 
their signification, when, to my astonishment, he 
replied it might be, " Stop the rascal/' and added 
that private signals were in constant use among 
the inland planters, as he called them, who, he 
said, suffered so much by their hands running 
away, that it was absolutely necessary to adopt 
a plan of the kind for security. He further 
stated, that such incorrigibles, when caught, were 
never allowed to leave the plantations, so that 
if they ventured abroad, they carried the warrant 
for their immediate arrest with them. " But/' 
he went on, " people are beginning to dislike 
such severity, and a new code of regulations, 
backed by the Legislature, is much talked of 
by the innovators, as we call them, to prevent 



A MISREPRESENTATION. 221 

such practices/' I have no doubt this man owned 
slaves himself. 

I said I thought myself that the policy of kind- 
ness would answer better than such severities, 
and it would be well if slave-holders generally 
were to try it. 

"Ah, stranger/' he replied, "I see you don't 
understand things here, down south. Don't you 
know that people who are over kind get imposed 
on ? This is specially the case with slaves ; treat 
them well, and you'll soon find them running 
off, or complaining. The only way to manage 
niggers is to keep them down, then you can 
control them, but not else." 

It has been urged a thousand times in defence 
of the upholders of slavery in its various ramifi- 
cations, that they are in reality, as a body, 
opposed to the system, and would readily con- 
form to any change that would be sufficiently 
comprehensive to indemnify them from present 
and future loss. From conversations heard in 
South Carolina, and other slave districts, I am 
quite satisfied that this is a misrepresentation, 
and that the generality of proprietors regard any 
change as a dangerous innovation, and that, far 
from reluctantly following the occupation of 
traders in flesh and blood, it is quite congenial 
to the vitiated tastes of the greater portion 
of southern citizens, whose perverted notions of 



222 THE NEGRO THE CONNECTING LINK 

justice and propriety are clamorously expressed 
on the most trivial occasions. In whatever sphere 
of society amongst them you go, you find the 
subject of " protecting their rights " urged with 
impetuosity ; the same rancorous feeling towards 
men of abolitionist sentiments, and the same 
deprecation of the slave race. To decry the 
negroes in public opinion is one of their constant 
rules of action, and if an individual attempts to 
assert their equal rights with mankind at large, 
he is considered as disaffected towards southern 
interests, and, if not openly threatened, as I have 
before observed in this work, is unceremoniously 
talked down. It is thus often dangerous to 
broach the subject, and if an individual, more 
daring than people generally are when in the 
plague-infected latitudes of slavery, attempts to 
repudiate the views so unhesitatingly expressed 
by the pro-slavery advocates, that the ne<rro race 
is but the connecting link between man and the 
brute creation, -he is looked upon with disgust, 
and his society contemned. This overbearing 
conduct is so ingrained, that it shows itself on 
the most trifling occasions, in their intercourse 
with their fellow-citizens. 

Argumentative facts might be produced ad 
infinitum to prove that the legal enactments for 
the government of the slave states of America 
have been framed so as to vest in the proprietor 



BETWEEN MAN AND THE BRUTE. 223 

as much control over the lives and persons of 
those they hold in servitude as any animal in 
the category of plantation stock. This in my 
tour through that region of moral darkness and 
despair, the state of Louisiana, I had numberless 
opportunities of observing, which would not fail 
to convince the most sceptical ; and if I have 
passed over many of these in the foregoing pages, 
it is because the incidents themselves (though 
proving that the slightest approach to indepen- 
dent action, or opposition to the depraved wills 
of their tyrannical superiors, is at once visited 
with consequences that make me shudder to 
reflect upon) were of too trivial a nature to 
interest the general reader. I will, however, 
copy here an extract from a paper published 
in Virginia, the Richmond Times for August, 
1852, which must, I think, tend to remove any 
doubts, if they exist in the mind of the reader, 
that the conclusions I have come to from personal 
observation are correct, and sufficient to prove 
that the despotic Nicholas of Russia himself does 
not exercise more absolute control over the lives 
and liberties of the degraded serfs he rules, than 
the slave-appropriators of America do over their 
victims. 

The newspaper in question is a highly popular 
one with the aristocratical slave-ow^ners of Vir- 
ginia, and the editor one of those champions of 



224 MURDER OF A SLAVE. 

the unjust and iniquitous system who invariably 
meet with extensive patronage in every part of 
the southern states. 

"A Field-hand Shot. — A gentleman named 
Ball, overseer to Mr. Edward T. Taylor, finding it 
necessary to chastise a field-hand, attempted to 
do so in the field. The negro resisted, and made 
fight, and, being the stronger of the two, gave 
the overseer a beating, and then betook himself 
to the woods. Mr. Ball, as soon as he could do 
so, mounted his horse, and, proceeding to Mr. 
Taylor's residence, informed him of what had 
occurred. Taylor, in company with Ball, repaired 
to the corn-field, to w^hich the negro had re- 
turned, and demanded to know the cause of his 
conduct. The negro replied that Ball attempted 
to flog him, and he would not submit to it. 
Taylor said he should, and ordered him to cross 
his hands, at the same time directing Ball to 
seize him. Ball did so, but perceiving the negro 
had attempted to draw a knife, told Mr. Taylor 
of it, who immediately sprang from his horse, 
and, drawing a pistol, shot the negro dead at 
his feet." 

The Richmond Reporter, a contemporary of 
the Times, commented on this impious affair as 
follows : — " Mr. Taylor did what every man who 
has the management of negroes ought to do ; 
enforce obedience, or kill them." 



HACKNEY-SLAVES. 225 

It is the practice of the inhabitants of Charles- 
ton, in common, I believe, with all owners of 
slaves in towns or cities in the slave states, who 
have not employment sufficient for them at home, 
or when the slave is a cripple, to send them out 
to seek their own maintenance. In such cases the 
slave is compelled to give an account of what he 
has earned during the week, at his owner's house, 
where he attends on Saturday evenings for the 
purpose. A fixed sum is generally demanded, in 
proportion to the average value of such labour at 
the time. I was informed that it frequently 
happens, that the master exacts the utmost the 
slave can earn, so that the miserable pittance left 
is scarcely sufficient to sustain nature ; this, no 
doubt, accounts for the haggard, careworn appear- 
ance of such labourers, for, with few exceptions, I 
found hands thus sent out, more miserably clad 
and less hale than the common run of slaves. On 
the other hand, if a slave is a good handicrafts- 
man, he is able to earn more than his master 
demands ; such instances are, however, rare. 
These are the men who, by dint of hard work 
and thrifty habits, accumulate sufficient eventu- 
ally to obtain manumission. There is, in most 
cases, a strict eye kept on such hands, and if 
the boon is attained, it is in general by stealthy 
means. 

At my boarding-house in Charleston, I often 
Q 



226 A DISTRESSED LAUNDRESS. 

saw negro laundresses who called for linen ; one 
of these in particular, I noticed, seemed to be in 
habitual low spirits ; on one occasion she ap- 
peared to be in unusual distress, in consequence 
of one of the boarders leaving the house in her 
debt. She said that her owner would certainly 
punish her if she did not make up the required 
sum, and where to procure it she could not tell. 
I was touched by her tale, and immediately 
opened a subscription amongst the boarders in 
the house, and succeeded in collecting a trifle 
over the amount she had lost ; this I handed 
her, and she went on her way rejoicing. 

I was told by a Carolinian who lodged at this 
house, that the practice of sending out slaves 
to earn money in the way I have described, has 
been in vogue from time immemorial, and that 
it was such a profitable mode of realizing by slave 
labour, that it was followed more extensively in 
that state now than formerly. 

I will conclude this part of my narration, by 
quoting the words of a powerful writer on the 
subject of slavery as I have witnessed its operation 
in America. 

" Amongst the afflicting ills which the wicked- 
ness of man has established upon earth, the 
greatest beyond compare is slavery. Indeed, its 
consequences are so dreadful, the sins which it 
engenders are of such gigantic proportions, and 



THE HORRORS OF SLAVERY. 227 

all its accompaniments are so loathsome and 
hideous, that the minds of benevolent per- 
sons revolt from contemplating it, as offering a 
spectacle of crime and cruelty, too deep for a 
remedy, and too vast for sympathy. Slavery is 
an infinite evil, the calculations of its murders, 
its rapine, its barbarities, its deeds of lust and 
licentiousness, though authenticated by the most 
unquestionable authorities, would produce a 
total of horrors too great to be believed ; and to 
narrate the history of these cruelties which have 
been perpetrated by American slave-masters 
within the last five years alone, would be to 
tell idle fables in the opinions of those who have 
not deeply studied the tragical subject. If we 
take the United States of America, where the 
outcry against slavery is greater than in any other 
country under heaven, and where we hear more 
of religion and revivalism, more of bustle and 
machinery of piety, a country setting itself up as 
a beacon of freedom ; then does slavery amongst 
such a people appear transcendently wicked ; a 
sin, which, in addition to its usual cruelty and 
selfishness, is in them loaded with hypocrisy and 
ingratitude. With hypocrisy, as it relates to their 
pretensions to liberty, and with ingratitude, as it 
relates to that God who gave them to be free. 
This, indeed, makes all the institutions of 
America, civil and religious, little better than a 



228 RETURN HOME. 

solemn mockery, a tragical jest for the passers-by 
of other nations, who, seeing two millions and 
a half of slaves held in fetters by vaunting free- 
men and ostentatious patriots, wag the head at 
the disgusting sight, and cry out deridingly to 
degraded America, ' The worm is spread under 
thee, and the worms cover thee/ ' ; 

My original intention of settling in America 
having been frustrated by ill health and other 
causes, I embarked on board a fine barque bound 
for Liverpool, where, after a favourable run of 
three weeks, we arrived in safety. Nothing worth 
noting occurred on the passage, except a fracas 
between the captain and the first mate, whom 
the former had discovered to be ignorant of the 
art of navigation, and who had, it appeared, been 
engaged in a hurry on the eve of the vessel's de- 
parture from Charleston. 

One day, comparing the result of a solar obser- 
vation with the mate, and finding him out in 
his calculations, the captain accused him, in 
great anger, of imposition, in offering his services 
as an efficient person to navigate the ship. On 
my endeavouring to pacify him, he turned to me, 
in a violent passion, and exclaimed, " This man, 
sir, is 400 miles out in his reckoning — and where 
would you and the ship be, do you think, if I 
were washed overboard ! " this argument was too 
cogent to be combated, and so I interfered no 



PISTOLS AND BLUNDERBUSS. 229 

more. He ordered the mate to go to the fore- 
castle, and refused to admit him to the cabin 
during the remainder of the passage. The mate 
was much irritated at this treatment, and, after 
a violent altercation, one day rushed to his chest 
and brought up two pistols, one of which he 
presented in the face of the captain, daring him 
at the same time to utter another word. The 
captain, highly incensed, instantly descended the 
companion-way to the cabin, and shortly after 
appeared with a blunderbuss, which he proceeded 
to prime. I was in a terrible state of mind at 
this juncture, and fully expected a fearful tra- 
gedy ; this, however, was averted by the inter- 
ference of another passenger, who stood between 
the parties. 

A violent storm overtook us in doubling Cape 
Hatteras soon after we sailed, which, besides 
damaging the bulwarks of the vessel, tore some 
of the sails to shivers ; our ship stood it, how- 
ever, gallantly, and, after that occurrence, we 
had favourable weather the remainder of the 
voyage. 

I was awaked early in the morning of the 
twenty-first day we had been at sea, by a cry 
from the man at the helm, of "Great Ormes 
Head/' and, hurrying on my clothes, I gained 
the deck. The high hills could be indistinctly 
seen through the morning haze, and the sight 



230 LAND AHEAD. 

was accompanied with joyful feelings to all on 
board. This enthusiasm was even communicated 
to the captain himself, who, since the affair with 
the mate, had been very much disposed to be 
sullen and unfriendly. 

I never could form a correct estimate of this 
man's character, but it was very evident he 
wished to pass for a pious man. He was a 
native of the eastern state of Massachusetts, 
and told me he had a family there. As to re- 
ligion, I believe he had none, though he was a 
Methodist by profession. I could often hear him 
praying audibly in his state-room on board, with 
much apparent feeling — but so little did these 
devotional fits aid him in curbing his wicked 
temper, that, even when engaged in this manner, 
he would, if anything extraordinary occurred on 
deck to disturb him, rush up the companion-way, 
and rate and swear at the sailors awfully. 

Soon after making Ormes Head, a pilot came 
on board, and, with a fair wind, we proceeded 
towards the river Mersey. 

After my wanderings in the slave-stricken re- 
gions of the south, and my escapes in Florida, 
the sight of the hospitable shores of my native 
country did more, I think, to renovate my in- 
jured health, than all the drastics of the most 
eminent physicians in the world ; certain it is, 
that, from this time, I gradually recovered, and, 



JAN 281949 



CONCLUSION. 231 

by the blessing of the Great Giver of all good, 
have been fully restored to that greatest of sub- 
lunary benefits — vigorous health ; a consumma- 
tion I at one time almost despaired of. 






FINIS. 



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